Submit your original work to win a poetry prize of $1,000.
“Poetry inspires me and my fellow Korean poets in America because it is beautiful and more glorious than the prose world I know.”
The winning poem will embody the spirit of Dr. Yearn Hong Choi, a professor and poet who composed cross-cultural works depicting life through varied political, social, economic and cultural lens. Choi saw the beauty in the “dailyness of life, small, sparkling moments that pass everyday, some paeans, some promises and some please.”
Dr. Choi was a first generation immigrant in the US, born in Korea and moved to the US in 1968 to pursue his Ph.D in public policy at Indiana University. He taught at the University of Wisconsin, Old Dominion University, University of the District of Columbia, the University of Seoul, and worked in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (1981-1983) as Assistant for Environmental Quality. With incredible passion for poetry, Dr. Choi weaved the themes of his immigrant life, his profession and politics, amongst others, into a prolific collection of poetry throughout his young adult and adult life. He read his poems at the US Library of Congress in 1994 and 2003 under the sponsorship of the Poet Laureate and Scholars Program, while also founding the Korean Poets and Writers Group in the Washington, DC area. Further information on Dr. Choi’s life and works can be found here and here.
Submission Guidelines:
- One unpublished submission per applicant.
- Korean and English submissions are both eligible.
- The Applicant must have previously published poetry work(s) in any publication or platform.
- Please include a cover letter with your name, address, phone number and email address along with the title of your poemnand the first five words of the poem. Please do not include your name or other identifying information anywhere on or in the poem.
The judging panel will include current members of two Washington DC-based poetry groups that Dr. Choi was active in – The Yoon Dong Ju Poetry Group and The Korean Washington Poets and Writers Group.
Deadline: Please send all submissions to yhcmemorialaward@gmail.com by April 1, 2022. The award winner will be notified on or around April 23, 2022.
