Choi Jeongrye

Jeongrye Choi (Hangul: 최정례) (1955 – 16 January 2021) was a modern South Korean poet.[1]

In this Korean name, the family name is Choi.
Jeongrye Choi
Born1955 (1955)
Died16 January 2021(2021-01-16) (aged 65–66)
LanguageKorean
NationalitySouth Korean
CitizenshipSouth Korean
EducationPh.D.
Alma materKorea University
Korean name
Hangul
최정례
Hanja
崔正禮
Revised RomanizationChoe Jeong-nye
McCune–ReischauerCh'oe Chŏng-nye

Life

Jeongrye Choi was born in a city near Seoul.[2] She studied Korean poetry at Korea University and received her PhD from the same school.[3][4] She participated in the IWP (International Writing Program) as a poet at University of Iowa in 2006 and stayed one year at University of California in Berkeley as a visiting writer in 2009. Her poems were printed in Free Verse, Iowa Review, Text Journal, World Literature Today, and various Japanese literary magazines. An English-language collection, 'Instances' (which she co-translated with Wayne de Fremery and Brenda Hillman) has been published. She was a lecturer at Korea University.[5]

Work

Many of Choi's poems are about time and memory. She usually uses fragments of time and memory as tools for looking into others and the world, or for identifying herself. What ultimately emerges from her exploration of fragmented memories and chaos of time is the sense of emptiness and loneliness, which is the core of existence.[6]

Choi's poetic language was simple and condensed. She uses plain words and turns it around to make them unfamiliar and strange.[1]

In Instances, her work is described as:

"There is a quality of imagination in her work that is still a rare thing in poetry—despite the opening up of form, content, and linguistic exploration that current innovative poetry has given us in the last few decades. Choi uses the image less for description than as enactment—almost as if the residue of the phantom in the poet’s brain were an action in itself—of reality."[2]
"Choi’s images are what might be termed “surreal,” but they are also “magical realism,” and at times quite abstract. ... Her style of image-making has odd wit and sweep; she makes the memory a layered reality that speaks to the current poetic moment. Her reality is a braid of metaphor, memory, intellect, and feeling. ... Images can be quite radical—and the dazzle of Jeongrye’s work can remind American readers about the mental variety and hopes for art brought from Modernism."[2]

Choi has received several awards including the Modern Literature Prize in 2007, the Baekseok Literature Prize in 2012, the Midang Literature Prize and the Ojangwhan Literature Prize in 2015.[4]

Works in translation
  • Instances: selected poems (최정례 시선)

Works in Korean (partial)
  • A Forest of Bamboo in My Ear (Minunsa, 1994)
  • Tigers in the Sunlight (Sekyesa, 1998)
  • Crimson Field (Changbi, 2001)
  • Lebanese Emotion (Munji, 2006)
  • Kangaroo is Kangaroo I am I (Munji, 2011)
  • Ditch is Dragon's Hometown (Changbi, 2015)

Awards
  • Kimdaljin Literature Prize (1999)
  • Yi-su Prize (2003)
  • Modern Literature Prize (2007)
  • Baekseok Literature Prize (2012)
  • Midang Literary Award (2015)
  • Ojangwhan Literature Prize (2015)

References
  1. "박상순" biographical PDF available at LTI Korea Library or online at: "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-09-21. Retrieved 2013-09-03.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. Choi, Jeongrye (2011). Instances. South Carolina: Parlor Press. p. Preface. ISBN 978-1602352346.
  3. "Choi Jeong-rye" LTI Korea Datasheet available at LTI Korea Library or online at: "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-09-21. Retrieved 2013-09-03.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. "Naver Search". http://people.search.naver.com/search.naver?sm=tab_hty&where=people&query=%EC%B5%9C%EC%A0%95%EB%A1%80&ie=utf8&x=-614&y=-27. Naver. Retrieved 8 November 2013. External link in |website= (help)
  5. Montgomery, Charles (June 4, 2014). "Jeongrye Choi – Upcoming Interview". ktlit.com. Retrieved June 5, 2014.
  6. "Choi Jeong-rye". Korean Writers The Poets. Minumsa Press. 2005. p. 23.
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