Mirror Nation by Don Mee Choi PRE-ORDER
Published 2nd May 2025. Available for pre-order.
As in Han Kang's Human Acts, the Korean government's massacre of hundreds of students in Gwangju in 1980 is the subject of Mirror Nation, in which Choi upends all poetic conventions to convey the unsayable short description: Don Mee Choi delves into South Korea's violent recent history, particularly the military's massacre of hundreds of students taking part in the 1980 Gwangju Uprising, in a poetry of grief that is both personal and collective. Mirror Nation is a sorrowful reflection on the ways in which a place can hold a "magnetic field of memory'. two endorsements as examples, from the US publication: "From Ethiopia to Israel, Nicaragua to Afghanistan, she ties headlines and fragments using the equal sign, which she refers to as “a syntax that enables multiple places and times to coexist simultaneously.†Choi skilfully illustrates the cyclical, endless nature of violence to more deeply understand her home, herself, and the world.' Publishers Weekly "Choi has demonstrated her dutiful attention to language in her previous work as a translator and poet, but what compels me in this collection is her sustained, universal critique of violence in and beyond national bounds.' Anabelle Johnston, Los Angeles Review of Books
As in Han Kang's Human Acts, the Korean government's massacre of hundreds of students in Gwangju in 1980 is the subject of Mirror Nation, in which Choi upends all poetic conventions to convey the unsayable short description: Don Mee Choi delves into South Korea's violent recent history, particularly the military's massacre of hundreds of students taking part in the 1980 Gwangju Uprising, in a poetry of grief that is both personal and collective. Mirror Nation is a sorrowful reflection on the ways in which a place can hold a "magnetic field of memory'. two endorsements as examples, from the US publication: "From Ethiopia to Israel, Nicaragua to Afghanistan, she ties headlines and fragments using the equal sign, which she refers to as “a syntax that enables multiple places and times to coexist simultaneously.†Choi skilfully illustrates the cyclical, endless nature of violence to more deeply understand her home, herself, and the world.' Publishers Weekly "Choi has demonstrated her dutiful attention to language in her previous work as a translator and poet, but what compels me in this collection is her sustained, universal critique of violence in and beyond national bounds.' Anabelle Johnston, Los Angeles Review of Books
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