Poet Kim I-deum Sweeps Both National Translation Award and Lucien Strick Translation Prize for 'Hysteria'

Poet Kim Ideum's 'Hysteria' English Edition Cover
Photo by Korea Literature Translation Institute

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Byung-hee] Poet Kim I-deum's poetry collection "Hysteria (Munhakgwa Jiseongsa)," published in 2014, has simultaneously won the "ALTA National Translation Awards" and the "ALTA Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize," both hosted by the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA). This is the first time in the history of the ALTA literary awards that both awards have been won simultaneously.

"Hysteria," translated by Jake Levine, Seo So-eun, and Choi Hye-ji, was published last year in English by Action Books, a poetry-specialized publisher affiliated with the University of Notre Dame in the United States.

"Hysteria" is the third poetry collection by Kim I-deum published in English with the support of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea. Previously, Kim I-deum's poetry collections "Cheer Up, Femme Fatale" (translated by Choi Don-mi and Johannes G?ransson, Action Books, 2016) and "Blood Sisters" (translated by Lee Ji-yoon, Deep Vellum Publishing, 2019) were published with support from the Literature Translation Institute of Korea and received positive responses locally. In addition to Kim I-deum's "Cheer Up, Femme Fatale," published in 2016, Action Books has also published three poetry collections by Kim Hye-soon.

The ALTA National Translation Awards, presented annually by ALTA, is a leading literary translation award in the United States and marked its 22nd year this year. It is awarded in poetry and prose categories for translated works published in the U.S. the previous year. Unlike other awards for translated literature, it evaluates the equivalence between the original and the translation, earning its prestigious status. "Hysteria" is the first Korean literary work to receive the ALTA National Translation Award.

The Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize, also hosted by ALTA, is awarded to translators of outstanding Asian poetry translated into English. It was established in 2010 in honor of Lucien Stryk, an American poet and Buddhist literature translator.

This is the third time a Korean literary work has won the Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize. Previously, translator Choi Don-mi won for Kim Hye-soon's poetry collection "Trash of the World, Unite!" (original title: Your First, Action Books, 2011) in 2012, and Kim Hye-soon's "Autobiography of Death" (New Directions, 2019) won in 2019.

At the award ceremonies held during the ALTA online conference on the 15th, the judging panel described "Hysteria" as "an intriguing and astonishing work composed of deliberately excessive and irrational poems," and praised it for "resisting nationalism, lyricism, and social norms while continuing the lineage of Korean women’s poetry."