Poet honored for her works' spiritual depth

The 18th Poetry and People International Poetry Prize was awarded to 71-year-old South Korean poet Kim Hye-soon in Seoul on Oct 19, with the jury praising her distinctive poetic voice and ability to transcend linguistic boundaries. Her work was described as especially significant in an era "when the world is generally mired in silence, compliance, and a tendency to forget".

Established in 2005 by Chinese poet Huang Lihai, the Poetry and People International Poetry Prize is an annual award dedicated to discovering and honoring poets who demonstrate spiritual depth and linguistic creativity. The prize also serves as a bridge for cultural exchange, connecting Chinese poetry with global perspectives.

Previous winners include Swedish poet Tomas Transtromer, who received the Chinese award in 2011 before winning the Nobel Prize in literature that same year, and the 2026 winner of the Nobel Prize in literature Anne Carson, who received the Poetry and People International Poetry Prize in 2022. Other distinguished recipients include Portuguese poet Eugenio de Andrade, Russian poet Inna Lisnyanskaya, Slovenian poet Tomaz Salamun, Polish poet Adam Zagajewski, and American poet Rita Dove.

Kim began her creative journey in 1979 by publishing poetry in Literature and Intellect Quarterly, one of the most influential literary magazines in South Korea. Between 1989 and 2021, she taught creative writing at the Seoul Institute of the Arts.

Kim's notable works include her poetry collections: From Another Star (1981), Father's Scarecrow (1985), Poor Love Machine (1997), To the Calendar Factory Supervisor (2000), Blossom, Pig (2016), Autobiography of Death (2016), Phantom Pain Wings (2019), and After Earth Dies, Who Will Moon Orbit? (2022).

She has also published the essay collections Thus Spoke No, and I Do Womananimalasia, as well as two collections of essays on poetry To Write as a Woman: Lover, Patient, Poet, and You, and Women, and I Do Poetry.

Her list of awards is equally extensive, including the prestigious Kim Su-yong Literary Award, the Modern Poetry Award, the Midang Literary Award, the Daesan Poetry Award, the Griffin Poetry Prize in Canada, the Swedish Cikada Prize, and the Samsung Ho-Am Prize in the Arts.

Kim's work is influenced by Chinese culture, and she has visited China multiple times. According to Huang, People's Literature Publishing House will release a Chinese book next year containing works from three of her poetry collections: A Drink of Red Mirror, Sorrowtoothpaste Mirrorcream, and Your First.

Commenting on Kim's poems, Huang says that her writing uses the body as a form of sacrifice, creating a space between mourning and resistance where poetic thought emerges. In a psychic realm where flesh, soul and imagination coexist, she crafts an undefined poetic universe, moving beyond the confines of delicate, mournful rhetoric. Her work, intertwined with themes of life, violence and collective trauma, completes poems in which elegy, fate and surrealism blend seamlessly.

He continues that Kim's poetry originates from a peninsula repeatedly torn apart, yet it transcends regional lament. She boldly challenges and subverts the longstanding patriarchal narrative of female docility, employing agile and uncanny language to launch a powerful counterattack against the constraints of traditional identity. This approach brings to the surface the untouchable pain of life and death, the enduring wounds of history, and the anguish of spiritual displacement.