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  • Notes on Contributors

*AZALEA generally adheres to the McCune-Reischauer system in transcribing Korean into English. However, many Korean contributors have not followed this convention, and we respect their way of writing their names in English.

Yoosup Chang received his B.A. in Asian studies at Vassar College. He is currently a producer for independent films and a videographer. He has previously translated numerous folktales as well as texts for the Korea Literature Translation Institute.

Cheon Woon Young, born in 1971, is considered a pioneer of a new trend in Korean literature and her works have been the subject of much analysis. Her major works include the short story collections Needle (Panŭl), Cheerfulness (Myŏng'rang), I'll Take You There (Nae ga teryŏda chulge), and the novel Goodbye, Circus (Chalgara sŏk'ŏsŭ).

Ch'oe Ryŏn is among the new group of North Korean writers who emerged after "The March of Hardship," the devastating period of natural disasters and economic and social turmoil that characterized the 1990s in the DPRK. Her work is distinctive among her contemporaries not just for its complex aesthetic features and its acute observation of social relations, but for its focus on what she terms the "double hardship" faced by North Korean women.

Wolhee Choe, Professor Emerita of English Literature at Polytechnic University, is the author of Toward an Aesthetic Criticism of Technology (1989), Golden Ark (1992), Lyric Brush (2004), and co-translator of three books of poems, Brief Songs of the Kisaeng: Courtesan Poetry of the Last Korean Dynasty (1997), Day Shine: Poems by Chong Hyon-jong (1998), and Windflower: Poems by Moon Chonghee (2004).

Chong Hyon-jong, born in Seoul, Korea, in 1939, is one of the most respected Korean poets. He has published twelve volumes of poetry, including The Complete Works in 1999 and the latest, [End Page 390] Unbearable (2003). His works have been translated into English, German, French, Spanish, and Russian and individual poems anthologized in many languages. He is also a translator of Pablo Neruda, García Lorca, Yeats, and others. Chong is a recipient of numerous prestigious awards including the Pablo Neruda Medal (2004) and the Kyong-am Award (2006).

Chŏn Pyŏng-gu has written poems that attempt to capture ordinary lives in North Korea. "A Birthday Table" is one example.

Wayne de Fremery has a B.A. in economics from Whitman College, an M.A. in Korean studies from Seoul National University, and is currently pursuing his doctorate in Korean literature at Harvard University.

Guy Delisle was born in Quebec City in 1966 and has spent the last decade living and working in France. He has written and drawn graphic novels including Shenzhen: A Travelogue From China, and is currently working on one about his experience in Burma. Pyongyang is his first graphic novel in English.

K.E. Duffin is an artist and writer living in Somerville, Massachusetts. She studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where she learned printmaking. Her work has been exhibited internationally and is in the collections of the Boston Athenaeum, the Boston Public Library, and the DeCordova Museum. She received a Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Grant in 2005 and a Berkshire Taconic A.R.T. grant in 2007. Her first book of poems, King Vulture, was published by the University of Arkansas Press.

Eun Hee Kyung, born in 1959, made her literary debut in 1995 with her novella Duet; the following year, her first novel Gift from a Bird (Sae ŭi sŏnmul) was awarded the first Munhak tongne Fiction Award. Eun has won numerous awards, including the 1997 Dongseo Literature Award, 1998 Isang Literary Prize, and 2000 Korean Literature Novel Award.

Diana Hinds Evans has two master's degrees in Korean literature, one from Seoul National University and one from Harvard [End Page 391] University. She is a freelance translator and spends most of her time raising her two boys, Emmet and Gabe.

Heinz Insu Fenkl, born in 1960 in Pup'yŏng, is a novelist, translator, and editor. His autobiographical novel, Memories of My Ghost Brother, was named a Barnes and Noble "Discover Great New Writers" selection in 1996 and a...

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