We invite you for a reading with two of Korea’s most adventurous contemporary poets: Shin Hae-uk, author of Biologicity (2024/2008), known for her disembodied, imaginative speakers, and Oh Eun, author of From Being to Being (2025/2016), a master of wordplay and double-meanings. Each is author of 6 collections in Korean, with their first books out in English translation over the past year.
Event will be moderated, together with interpretation by Eunice Lee (Ph.D. candidate, Harvard English) and both poets’ translators, Shyun Ahn and Spencer Lee-Lenfield.
This is a rare chance to hear these poets in the US!

Shin Hae-uk
Poet and Professor of Creative Writing, Dongduk Women’s University

Shin Hae-uk has been publishing since 1998, including six poetry collections, three volumes of essays, and a novel. Her awards include the Kim Hyun Literary Prize in 2022 and the Daesan Literary Prize in 2025. Shin holds a doctorate in Korean literature from Korea University and currently teaches creative writing at Dongduk Women’s University in Seoul. You can read some of her work in English translation through the magazine “Korean Literature Now” at https://klwave.or.kr/klw/magazines/203/issuesView.do.

Oh Eun
Poet

Oh Eun has published six volumes of poetry, as well as two essay collections. He hosts the podcast “Check It Out (책읽아웃) in collaboration with Korean bookseller Yes24. Honors and prizes include the Daesan Literature Prize, the Modern Poetry Prize, and the Park Insang Literary Prize. For a taste of his work in English, you can read his feature with “Korean Literature Now” here (https://klwave.or.kr/klw/magazines/199/issuesView.do). You can also hear some of his work—and lively personality—on Instagram at @flaneuroh.

Chaired by Spencer Lee-Lenfield, Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature, Harvard University

Abstract:
We invite you for a reading with two of Korea’s most adventurous contemporary poets: Shin Hae-uk, author of Biologicity (2024/2008), known for her disembodied, imaginative speakers, and Oh Eun, author of From Being to Being (2025/2016), a master of wordplay and double-meanings. Each is author of 6 collections in Korean, with their first books out in English translation over the past year. Event will be moderated, together with interpretation and literary translation. This is a rare chance to hear these poets in the US, thanks to a visit partly funded by the Literature Translation Institute of Korea!

An event of the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard’s Rethinking Translation Seminar  co-hosted with the Harvard Korea Institute.
Event co-funded by the Literature Translation Institute of Korea  and Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd.

Event Link.