2011 Sejong Writing Competition
Judges
Sijo Judges:
Jessica Fisher |
Young Min Kwon |
David McCann
Essay Judges:
Mark Hagland |
Sharon Chur Lapenskeye |
Sun Yung Shin
Jessica Fisher’s first book of poems, Frail-Craft, won the 2006 Yale Younger Poets Award, was a finalist for the Northern California Book Award, and received favorable reviews from such journals as The Boston Review, The Colorado Review, Library Journal, The Missouri Review, The New Yorker, and Publisher’s Weekly. Her second book of poems, Inmost, won the Nightboat Poetry Prize and will be published in Spring 2012. Her poems appear in such journals as The American Poetry Review, The Believer, The Colorado Review, McSweeney’s, The New Yorker, Puerto del Sol, The Threepenny Review, and TriQuarterly, and her translations appear in The New York Review of Books and The Paris Review. She holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of California, Berkeley, where she is currently a Holloway Postdoctoral Fellow in Poetry and Poetics. She lives in Oakland with her husband, daughter, and son.
Professor Young Min Kwon (Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea) is regarded as the most prominent scholar in the field of Korean literature. He was instrumental in development of new theory on modern Korean literature and new era of Korean literature critics genre. Kwon was invited to Harvard University in 2004. He taught two courses: History of Modern Korean Literature and History of Modern Korean Fiction. By all accounts they were a great success. In addition to a thorough and engaging presentation of modern Korean literature, Prof. Kwon was also able to spice his lectures with personal stories about the authors being studied, many of whom he had met or knew. Literature for Professor Kwon, it would seem, is not just something to be read silently and pondered alone, but a social activity, a group of people getting together to bring their own individual stories to the stories on the page. His voluminous scholarship helps to define the meeting place, and his endearing personality invites people to gather and partake. In addition to teaching, Professor Kwon also organized (along with Professor David McCann) the International Exchange Program for Graduate Students in Korean Literature at Harvard in June 2004. Some thirty students and professors from the U.S., Korea and Canada participated in the week-long event aimed at building stronger ties between students of Korean literature in North America and those in Korea. He won the Joong Ang Daily Newspaper’s Award in Literature Critics in 1971 and has won numerous awards since then. He has published numerous scholarly articles and books. Kwon has been a member of faculty at the Seoul National University since 1981.
David R. McCann, ICAS, is Korea Foundation Professor of Korean Literature in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations as well as Director of the Korea Institute at Harvard University. David is the recipient of numerous prizes, grants, and fellowships including the prestigious Manhae Prize in Arts and Sciences (2004), the Daesan Foundation Translation Grant (1997), and the Korea P.E.N. Center Translation Prize (1994). His many books include Traveler Maps: Poems by Ko Un (2004), The Columbia Anthology of Modern Korean Poetry (2004), Early Korean Literature: Selections and Introductions (2001), War and Democracy: A Comparative Study of the Korean War and the Peloponnesian War (2001) and The Classical Moment: Views from Seven Literatures (1999).
Not only a renowned translator of major Korean poems but also a well-recognized poet, David has published many poems in such distinguished media as Poetry, Ploughshares, Descant, Runes and recently published a chapbook of poems Cat Bird Tree (2005). His poem "David" was included in the Pushcart Prize Anthology III. David's new book of poems The Way I Wait For You has been accepted for publication by Codhill Press and will be published this year.
Mark Hagland has been a writer, editor, researcher and public speaker in health care for over 20 years. He has written for a wide variety of prominent publications in the health care industry, has spoken to a very broad range of health care leaders on topics of strategic interest, and has been interviewed by a wide range of national news organizations. In January 2010, Mark became Editor-in-Chief of Healthcare Informatics, a leading publication for health care information technology leaders.
Mark is the author of two books on performance optimization in health care. In 2007, with Jeffrey C. Bauer, Ph.D., he co-authored Paradox and Imperatives in Health Care: How Efficiency, Effectiveness, and E-Transformation Can Conquer Waste and Optimize Quality. In 2008, Mark authored Transformative Quality: The Emerging Revolution in Health Care Performance.
Mark holds a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin and a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.
Sharon Chur Lapensky is a teacher, library media specialist, and writer whose family is originally from Hawaii. She has a B.A. in English, from Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and an M.S. in Library Media Education from Minnesota State University, Mankato. Sharon has participated in the Minnesota Writing Project's Summer Fellowship for teachers and was selected for a Writer-to-Writer mentorship through SASE: The Write Place. She is a member of The Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis and the American Association of School Librarians. Her essays and book reviews have appeared in Korean Quarterly and the Multicultural Review. She lives in Minneapolis, MN with her husband and two Korean-born children.
Sun Yung Shin is the author of two books of poetry: Skirt Full of Black and Rough, and Savage (forthcoming from Coffee House Press), and the co-editor of Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption. She is also the author of Cooper’s Lesson, a bilingual Korean/English illustrated book for children. Shin has received funding from the Archibald Bush Foundation, Minnesota State Arts Board, and the Jerome Foundation, and has taught creative writing in a variety of higher education, K-12, and community settings. She is a full-time faculty member of the Arts High School at the Perpich Center for Arts Education. Her website is www.sunyungshin.com.