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Don Mee Choi and Kim Hyesoon win 2019 Griffin Poetry Prize

2019 Griffin Poetry Prize Winners

Congratulations to Don Mee Choi and Kim Hyesoon for winning the 2019 International Griffin Poetry Prize with Autobiography of Death. In an interesting way of recognising the relationship between the creators of the original text and the translated work, the collection is credited as being “by Don Mee Choi, translated from the Korean written by Kim Hyesoon.” The collection is published by New Directions and “consists of forty-nine poems, each poem representing a single day during which the spirit roams after death before it enters the cycle of reincarnation.”

The prize was established in 2000 by Canadian businessman and philanthropist Scott Griffin. The prize is for first edition books of poetry written in, or translated into, English and submitted from anywhere in the world. Don Mee Choi and Kim Hyesoon each receive C$65,000 (around USD 50,000) in prize money. Quarrels by Eve Joseph (Anvil Press) was the winner of the 2019 Canadian prize, announced on 6 June.

Scott Griffin presents the 2019 Griffin Poetry Prize winners: Don Mee Choi and Kim Hyesoon for Autobiography of Death and Eve Joseph for Quarrels
Scott Griffin presents the 2019 Griffin Poetry Prize winners: Don Mee Choi and Kim Hyesoon for Autobiography of Death and Eve Joseph for Quarrels (source @GriffinPoetry Twitter feed)

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