Podcast appearances and mentions of don mee choi

The second in a series of conversations about the poet Alice Notley, who passed away on May 19, 2025. The poet and critic Joyelle McSweeney joins the podcast to talk about selections from Notley's epic The Descent of Alette. (A brief note on audio quality: we listen to three recordings of Notley reading from her book during this episode. The volume on playback of those recordings seems somewhat low to me—sorry!—but hopefully listeners will be able to adjust the volume on their devices so as to hear Notley well enough.)Guggenheim Fellow Joyelle McSweeney is the author of ten books of poetry, drama and prose, a well-known critic, and a vital publisher of international literature in translation. McSweeney's latest book, Death Styles, appeared from Nightboat Books in Spring 2024; her previous title, Toxicon and Arachne (2020), was called "frightening and brilliant" by Dan Chiasson in the New Yorker and earned her the Shelley Memorial Prize from the Poetry Society of America. Her 2014 essay collection, The Necropastoral: Poetry, Media, Occults, is widely regarded as a visionary work of eco-criticism. Her debut poetry volume, The Red Bird, inaugurated the Fence Modern Poets Series in 2001. With Johannes Göransson, she co-edits the international press Action Books, which has built readerships for a diverse array of US and international authors from Griffin Prize winners Kim Hyesoon and Don Mee Choi to Daniel Borzutzky and Raúl Zurita. She lives in South Bend, Indiana and teaches at the University of Notre Dame.You can see Alice Notley read the entirety of The Descent of Alette in a series of recordings made over two nights at The Poetry Center at SFSU. Please follow the podcast if you like what you hear, and leave a rating and review. Share an episode with a friend! (Post it to your social media feeds?) You can also subscribe to my Substack, which I haven't used in a while, but may again. I'm also on Bluesky, now and then.

Introducing three poems in Kim Hye-soon's collection of poems [Phantom Pain Wings], we talk about death and loss. Translated by Don Mee Choi

Srikanth Reddy first encountered the complex poetic world of Don Mee Choi as a translator of avant-garde Korean poetry before reading Choi's own poetry. As a poet, Choi invites readers into her personal history—which is also the history of her father and of war. Even if you haven't read Choi's poetry, you've probably seen the work of her father—a photojournalist who filmed much of the news footage that Americans saw of the Vietnam War and the Cold War era. Choi is at work on a new book, Wings of Utopia, which is the final book in what unintentionally became a trilogy. In Hardly War, Choi set out to explore the dictatorship era of South Korea, but to understand Park Chung-hee's dictatorship, she felt she also needed to delve into the 1945 national division of Korea, so she wrote a second book, DMZ Colony. Today you'll hear three poems from the final book, where Choi orbits around her father's memories as a way to explore the Gwangju Massacre, and what Walter Benjamin called “temporal magic.”

„Ich gebrauche jetzt die besseren Wörter nicht mehr.“ So beginnt Ilse Aichinger ihren kurzen Essay Schlechte Wörter und die gleichnamige Textsammlung, in der sie ihre widerständige Poetik entwickelt. Eine Verweigerung gegen das Gebotene, gegen falsche Zusammenhänge und Gewissheiten. Können wir verlernen, die Gewalt in der Sprache zu reproduzieren? Sind die schwächeren Ausdrücke die Rettung? Ausgehend von Aichingers Text, schafft die Audioserie Schlechte Wörter einen Ort für ein anderes Sprechen über Sprache und Literatur, für die Annäherung an ein neues Sprachgefühl. Aus Gesprächen, Lesungen, Sprachnachrichten, Field Recordings und Musik entsteht mit wechselnden Gästen ein begehbarer, vielstimmiger Raum. Die Verabredung lautet: Wir gehen von einem Text aus, damit ein anderer Text beginnen kann. Eine Audioserie von Fabian Saul, in Zusammenarbeit mit Mathias Zeiske. Schlechte Wörter #3 mit Beiträgen von Don Mee Choi, Sophia Eisenhut, Tanasgol Sabbagh, Fabian Saul, Karosh Taha, Senthuran Varatharajah und Uljana Wolf www.hkw.de/schlechtewoerter +++ “I now no longer use the better words.” This is the beginning of Ilse Aichinger's brief essay Bad Words and the anthology of the same name in which she develops her resistant poetics. A refusal of the imperative, of false certainties and the unassailable. Can we unlearn the reproduction of violence in language? Are the weaker expressions our salvation? Based on Aichinger's work, the audio series Bad Words creates a place for a different way of speaking about language and literature, for approaching a new sense of language. From conversations, readings, voice messages, field recordings and music, a polyphonic space is created with changing guests. The idea is: We start from one text so that another text can begin. An audio series by Fabian Saul, in cooperation with Mathias Zeiske. Bad Words #3 with contributions by Don Mee Choi, Sophia Eisenhut, Merve Emre, Hanne Lippard, Tanasgol Sabbagh, Fabian Saul, Karosh Taha, Senthuran Varatharajah and Uljana Wolf

With all eyes are on it, these are the stories of Korea's culture from the very pages of its literature. Introducing Kim Hye-soon's collection of poems [Autobiography of Death], we learn about the Sewol Ferry disaster and meaning of the number 49. Translated by Don Mee Choi

In this bonus episode Connor and Jack continue their discussion of Don Mee Choi's poem, Shitty KItty. This time they focus on (rant about?) the history of US foreign policy failures, the lack of consequences for the architects of those disasters, and connect the histories that Shitty Kitty surfaces to contemporary struggles. They also share a some from the "Report by the Special Subcommittee on Disciplinary Problems in the US Navy." Listen to the full episode on "Shitty Kitty" here: https://soundcloud.com/close-talking/episode-141-shitty-kitty-don-mee-choi Read the poem, here: www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/90212/shitty-kitty Get a copy of Hardly War, here: www.wavepoetry.com/products/hardly-war Learn more about Don Mee Choi, here: www.donmeechoi.com/ Shitty Kitty By: Don Mee Choi Here comes Shitty Kitty en route to the Gulf of Tonkin or en route to a race riot? That is the question and meanwhile discipline is the keystone and meanwhile did you see on TV helicopters being ditched into the sea? That is also my film and meanwhile all refugees must be treated as suspects. Looking for your husband? Looking for your son? That is the question and meanwhile she was the mother of the boy or that is what the translator said or Shitty Kitty or shall we adhere to traditional concepts of military discipline tempered with humanitarianism? That is the question and meanwhile South Korea exports military labor left over from the war. That is also my history or is that your history? That is the question and meanwhile (CHORUS: Dictator Park Chung Hee and his soldiers in Ray-Bans) How much? $7.5 million=per division or Binh Tai massacre=$7.5 million or Binh Hoa massacre=$7.5 million or Dien Nien—Phuoc Binh massacre=$7.5 million or Go Dai massacre=$7.5 milion or Ha My massacre=$7.5 million or Phong Nhi & Phong Nhat massacre=$15 million or Tay Vinh massacre=$7.5 million or Vinh Xuan massacre=$7.5 million or Mighty History? That is the question and meanwhile a riot began over a grilled cheese sandwich at Subic Bay. Discrimination or perception? That is the question and meanwhile the sailor refused to make a statement or translate? That is the question and meanwhile twenty-six men all black were charged with assault and rioting and meanwhile did you translate? That is my question and meanwhile lard or Crisco? Aye, aye, sir! (Anti-CHORUS: kittens in frilly white bonnets, bibs, and mittens) K I T T Y S O N G I, aye-aye-sir! I, crazy-daisy-sir! I, export-quality-sir! I, grill-grill-sir! I, meow-meow-sir! I, kitty-litter-sir! Find us at our website: www.closetalking.com/ Find us on Facebook at: facebook.com/closetalking 
Find us on Twitter at: twitter.com/closetalking
 Find us on Instagram: @closetalkingpoetry You can always send us an e-mail with thoughts on this or any of our previous podcasts, as well as suggestions for future shows, at closetalkingpoetry@gmail.com.

Connor and Jack discuss Don Mee Choi's "Shitty Kitty" from her 2016 book "Hardly War." They enmesh themselves in the tangled histories the poem explores - racial violence on US Navy ships in the 1970s, massacres committed by South Korean troops in Vietnam - talk about how the poem fits into the wider project of the book, and explore how the poem engages with the theories of Roland Barthes. Read the poem, here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/90212/shitty-kitty Get a copy of Hardly War, here: https://www.wavepoetry.com/products/hardly-war Learn more about Don Mee Choi, here: http://www.donmeechoi.com/ Shitty Kitty By: Don Mee Choi Here comes Shitty Kitty en route to the Gulf of Tonkin or en route to a race riot? That is the question and meanwhile discipline is the keystone and meanwhile did you see on TV helicopters being ditched into the sea? That is also my film and meanwhile all refugees must be treated as suspects. Looking for your husband? Looking for your son? That is the question and meanwhile she was the mother of the boy or that is what the translator said or Shitty Kitty or shall we adhere to traditional concepts of military discipline tempered with humanitarianism? That is the question and meanwhile South Korea exports military labor left over from the war. That is also my history or is that your history? That is the question and meanwhile (CHORUS: Dictator Park Chung Hee and his soldiers in Ray-Bans) How much? $7.5 million=per division or Binh Tai massacre=$7.5 million or Binh Hoa massacre=$7.5 million or Dien Nien—Phuoc Binh massacre=$7.5 million or Go Dai massacre=$7.5 milion or Ha My massacre=$7.5 million or Phong Nhi & Phong Nhat massacre=$15 million or Tay Vinh massacre=$7.5 million or Vinh Xuan massacre=$7.5 million or Mighty History? That is the question and meanwhile a riot began over a grilled cheese sandwich at Subic Bay. Discrimination or perception? That is the question and meanwhile the sailor refused to make a statement or translate? That is the question and meanwhile twenty-six men all black were charged with assault and rioting and meanwhile did you translate? That is my question and meanwhile lard or Crisco? Aye, aye, sir! (Anti-CHORUS: kittens in frilly white bonnets, bibs, and mittens) K I T T Y S O N G I, aye-aye-sir! I, crazy-daisy-sir! I, export-quality-sir! I, grill-grill-sir! I, meow-meow-sir! I, kitty-litter-sir! Find us at our website: www.closetalking.com/ Find us on Facebook at: facebook.com/closetalking 
Find us on Twitter at: twitter.com/closetalking
 Find us on Instagram: @closetalkingpoetry You can always send us an e-mail with thoughts on this or any of our previous podcasts, as well as suggestions for future shows, at closetalkingpoetry@gmail.com.

This year, we've put together the first official Host Publications Women In Translation Month Reading List, which includes many of our all-time favorite WIT titles, some new faves, a few books that are on our "to-read" lists, and even some books translated by women.  In this episode, we discuss our beloved WIT reading list, before diving into three amazing books we wanted to highlight: A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa, with translations by the author (Biblioasis) Our Lady of The Nile by Scholastique Mukasonga, translated by Melanie Mauthner (Archipelago Books) Yi Sang: Selected Works with translations by Don Mee Choi and Sawako Nakayasu (Wave Books)

Read&Succeed | Ep 19 | DMZ Colony (2020) | Don Mee Choi | 4-7-21 by FORward Radio

In Episode #2 of Translators Note, we take a closer look at three translated books published this past year, and the processes, trends, and intercultural dynamics at play as a translation project enters the world.Jack Jung, translator of Yi Sang: Selected Works (ed. Don Mee Choi, Wave Books 2020) and Lizzie Buehler, translator of The Disaster Tourist by Yun Ko-Eun (Counterpoint Press 2020) join producer Abby Ryder-Huth to talk about their books and the particulars of working from Korean. Later, Kendall Storey, associate editor at Catapult, gives producer Julia Conrad a behind-the-scenes look at the publishing side, and talks about editing 2020 National Book Award finalist High as the Waters Rise, by Anja Kampmann and translated by Anne Posten. **If you have a translation project you think would be a good fit for Kendall, she is acquiring literary fiction (especially innovative works attentive to language) for Catapult Books, as well as for Soft Skull Press, which is known for its edgier and often humorous house aesthetic. You can reach her at kendall.storey@catapult.co.**Translators Note would like to thank everyone who makes our show possible! Nate Repasz made our fantastic theme music, and in this episode we also hear music by Daniel Birch, and "Ariel" by Bio Unit.PS: we're on Spotify and Apple Podcasts! Listen to us and subscribe there!

Recorded by Don Mee Choi for Poem-a-Day, a series produced by the Academy of American Poets. Published on March 18, 2021. www.poets.org

In celebration of Don Mee Choi's recent National Book Award for DMZ Colony (Wave Books, 2020), we wanted to share the following talk: On OCTOBER 17, 2017 Don Mee Choi gave a lecture based on her keynote address at the 2016 American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) conference, entitled “Translation is a mode=Translation is an anti-neocolonial mode.” This talk, now available as a pamphlet published by Ugly Duckling Presse, included discussion of Walter Benjamin's bread, Korean cornbread, warships, Ingmar Bergman's The Silence, and Kim Hyesoon's mirrors, among other things. Co-presented by the Hugo House, in Seattle, WA, this event took place at the Sorrento Hotel's Fireside Room. DMZ Colony is available here, and at independent bookstores everywhere.

Sarah Lawson is a writer and editor based in Brooklyn. They are a member of the Ugly Duckling Presse editorial collective, and act as UDP's Publicity Director. Lee Norton is a member of the Ugly Duckling Presse Editorial Collective, where he also serves as the Development Director. He teaches composition and literature at Queens College CUNY, usually with a focus on the history and rhetoric of the life sciences, theories of genre, 20th-century fiction, and contemporary poetry, in some combination. He earned a PhD in English and Comparative Literature at UNC-Chapel Hill; his critical work has appeared in Occasions; his poetry, in Ohio Edit, Drunken Boat, Supermachine, and several other magazines. Ugly Duckling Presse is a nonprofit publisher for poetry, translation, experimental nonfiction, performance texts, and books by artists. Through the efforts of a volunteer editorial collective, UDP was transformed from a 1990s zine into a mission-driven small press that has published more than 300 titles to date, and produced countless prints and ephemera. UDP favors emerging, international, and “forgotten” writers, and its books, chapbooks, artist’s books, broadsides, and periodicals often contain handmade elements, calling attention to the labor and history of bookmaking. UDP is committed to keeping its publications in circulation with our online archive of out-of-print chapbooks and our digital proofs program. In all of its activities, UDP endeavors to create an experience of art free of expectation, coercion, and utility. Here is a link to the pamphlet subscription mentioned in the interview and the regular subscription is here. And here is some more writing on the reasoning / history that went into doing the pamphlet series, in the words of editor Daniel Owen. Soviet Texts, the first representative selected volume of poetry by Dmitri Alexandrovich Prigov, a leading writer of the late Soviet and early post-Soviet era and one of the founders of Moscow Conceptualism. The first batch of the 2020 Pamphlet Series, with work from Simon Cutts, Sergio Chejfec, Don Mee Choi, Steven Zultanski, and Aleksandr Skidan. Bobbie Louise Hawkins' autobiographical novel One Small Saga; and Laura Riding's first book of poetry, The Close Chaplet.

It's October! This month Bob and Chris are talking all about friiiightfully scaaaarrrryyy poems. On today's episode, Bob reads "Ghost School" by Kim Hyesoon (translated from Korean by Don Mee Choi), Chris reads "What Would Kill Me" by Zachary Schomburg, and then the dudes talk about the possibility of getting dunked on by Shaq.

After a one year hiatus, Sean, Isaac, and Anastasia are BACK! In the episode, they discuss how reading translated poems isn't that different (but also, is different) from reading poems in your native language. Poems discussed include "Red Scissors Woman" by Kim Hyesoon, translated from the Korean by Don Mee Choi; "After the Flood," by Arthur Rimbaud, translated from the French by John Ashbery; and "What does the Train Carry?" by Aleksey Porvin, translated from the Russian by our very own Isaac Wheeler. (Kim poem: https://aaww.org/kim-hyesoon-two-poems/) (Rimbaud poem: http://sharingpoetry.tumblr.com/post/32497716166/arthur-rimbaud-after-the-flood)

'Mommy Must be a Fountain of Feathers' by Kim Hyesoon, translated by Don Mee Choi and read by Francesca Chabrier. 'Mommy Must be a Fountain of Feathers' appears in the collection of the same name published by Action Books in 2008. More from Francesca Chabrier can be found at https://www.francescachabrier.com

In her first full-length collection, A Cruelty Special to Our Species (Ecco Books, 2018), Emily Jungmin Yoon examines forms of violence against women. At its core these poems delves into the lives of Korean comfort women of the 1930s and 40s, reflecting on not only the history of sexual slavery, but also considering its ongoing impact. Her poems beautifully lift the voices of these women, helping to make them heard and remembered — while also providing insight into current events, environmentalism, and her own personal experiences as a woman in the world. During her interview, Emily Jungmin Yoon recommends Autobiography of Death (New Directions Books, 2018), written by Kim Hyesoon and translated by Don Mee Choi, and Hardly War (Wave Books, 2016) by Choi. Andrea Blythe is a co-host of the New Books in Poetry podcast. She is the author of Your Molten Heart / A Seed to Hatch (2018) a collection of erasure poems, and coauthor of Every Girl Becomes the Wolf (Finishing Line Press, 2018),  a collaborative chapbook written with Laura Madeline Wiseman. She serves as an associate editor for Zoetic Press and is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association. Learn more at: www.andreablythe.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In her first full-length collection, A Cruelty Special to Our Species (Ecco Books, 2018), Emily Jungmin Yoon examines forms of violence against women. At its core these poems delves into the lives of Korean comfort women of the 1930s and 40s, reflecting on not only the history of sexual slavery, but also considering its ongoing impact. Her poems beautifully lift the voices of these women, helping to make them heard and remembered — while also providing insight into current events, environmentalism, and her own personal experiences as a woman in the world. During her interview, Emily Jungmin Yoon recommends Autobiography of Death (New Directions Books, 2018), written by Kim Hyesoon and translated by Don Mee Choi, and Hardly War (Wave Books, 2016) by Choi. Andrea Blythe is a co-host of the New Books in Poetry podcast. She is the author of Your Molten Heart / A Seed to Hatch (2018) a collection of erasure poems, and coauthor of Every Girl Becomes the Wolf (Finishing Line Press, 2018),  a collaborative chapbook written with Laura Madeline Wiseman. She serves as an associate editor for Zoetic Press and is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association. Learn more at: www.andreablythe.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In today's flash briefing, I read Don Mee Choi's poem, "6.25" in her book, "Hardly War." It is one of my favorite books out from Wave Press, and Don Mee Choi's performance and print work continues to inspire both myself and my students. I would like to note that in my audio recording, I described the title as "like the date," but that is a mis-speaking. It is not necessarily in reference to the date. More on Don Mee Choi -- (http://www.donmeechoi.com/) // Some Audio/Visual Work: (https://www.wavepoetry.com/products/don-mee-choi) // BOMB Magazine Article: (https://bombmagazine.org/articles/bad-news/) ● The Poetry Vlog is a YouTube Channel and Podcast dedicated to building social justice coalitions through poetry, pop culture, cultural studies, and related arts dialogues. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to join our fast-growing arts & scholarship community (youtube.com/c/thepoetryvlog?sub_confirmation=1). Connect with us on Instagram (instagram.com/thepoetryvlog), Twitter (twitter.com/thepoetryvlog), Facebook (facebook.com/thepoetryvlog), and our website (thepoetryvlog.com).

In this podcast: 00:00 - Introduction to Denise Riley 02:50 - Denise Riley reading begins 33.05 - Sasha Dugdale introduces Don Mee Choi 42.12 - Don Mee Choi reads translations of Kim Hyesoon 54:00 - Don Mee Choi reads translations of Kim Yideum 1:05:48 - Don Mee Choi reads from her book ‘The Morning News is Exciting’ This podcast features Denise Riley and Don Mee Choi. It was recorded at The Print Room, London, for the launch of Modern Poetry in Translation's winter issue 'The Blue Vein', which features Korean poetry including work by Kim Hyesoon, Kim Yidium, Han Kang and more. See the full contents on www.mptmagazine.com About Don Mee Choi: Don Mee Choi was born in Korea, but settled in the USA. She is a poet, critic and essayist and in experimental and important work she challenges notions of history and identity. She is one of Korean poetry’s foremost translators and her translations of Kim Hyesoon are published by Bloodaxe. Her last collection of poetry, Hardly War was published to acclaim in 2016. The New York Times said of Hardly War: ‘Deliberately and excitingly difficult in both its style and its subject matter, Don Mee Choi’s second collection, Hardly War, sees its author operating as an archaeologist as much as a poet. Choi’s use of hybrid forms — poetry, memoir, opera libretto, images and artifacts from her father’s career as a photojournalist in the Korean and Vietnam Wars — lets her explore themes of injustice and empire, history and identity, sifting through the detritus of family, translation, propaganda and dislocation.’ http://www.donmeechoi.com About Denise Riley: Denise Riley is a critically acclaimed writer of both philosophy and poetry. Her books include War in the Nursery [1983]; ‘Am I that Name?’ [1988]; The Words of Selves [2000]; Denise Riley: Selected Poems [2000]; The Force of Language, with Jean-Jacques Lecercle [2004]; Impersonal Passion [2005], Time Lived, Without Its Flow [2012] and Say Something Back [2016]. She is currently Professor of the History of Ideas and and of Poetry at the University of East Anglia, and has taught and researched widely at many institutions in Europe and America.. Her visiting positions have included A.D. White Professor at Cornell University in the US, Writer in Residence at the Tate Gallery in London, and Visiting Fellow at Birkbeck College in the University of London. She has taught philosophy, art history, poetics, and creative writing. Denise Riley lives in London.

This poem is published in MPT ‘The Great Flight’ focusses on refugee poetry – poetry by refugees and about the plight of refugees and migrants. Read more: http://bit.ly/1r8dsmK This issue introduces us to a range of new work by renowned poets, including Eritrean Ribka Sibhatu and Ethiopian Hama Tuma. South Korean poet and translator Don Mee Choi writes about her experiences of migration and we’ve commissioned a new translation of important work by Syrian poet Golan Haji. Carmen Bugan writes movingly about her father’s failed escape from Communist Romania and Shash Trevett muses on the murder of language. We also feature new versions of two radical women poets: eighth-century Sufi mystic Rābiʿah al-Baṣrī, in Clare Pollard’s translation, and sonnets of female sexuality and desire by renaissance poet Louise Labé in translations by Olivia McCannon – all in this new issue of the groundbreaking magazine dedicated to poetry in translation.