Woodland
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Myung Mi Kim was born in 1957 in Seoul, Korea. Her family immigrated to the United States when she was nine. When describing the influence that event had upon her writing, she says, "There's something about being nine or so—you have enough access to the language, you feel a connection to the culture fully. And yet again, that culture is and will be embedded in you. In this strange region of knowing and not knowing, I have access to Korea as a language and culture but this access is shaped by rupture (leaving the country, the language). When I engage 'Korea'—what resemblance does it have to any 'real' place, culture, or the language spoken there? So in this effort and failure of bridging, reconfiguring, shaping, and being shaped by loss and absence, one enters a difficult negotiation with an Imaginary and a manner of listening which to me is the state of writing."
Kim holds degrees from the University of Iowa (MFA), The Johns Hopkins University (MA) and Oberlin College (BA). She is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at San Francisco State University. |
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