Description
Moon is a poet of wild nature, vigorous energy, and sparking passion. Moon’s short lyrical poems represent poignant self-examination, evoking moments of bewilderment and hopeful resignation to the passage of time and imprisoning conditions of her life. She invites the reader along the tracks of a married woman’s life as she traveres her rite of initiation into maturity.Her work explores the desire to escape the fetters of domesticity as a vehicle for understanding a woman’s journey and her negotiations between the desire for freedom and domestic reality provides the context for longing in her poetry.
Reviews

“Moon Chung-hee, one of the most celebrated poets in Korea, has put out a collection of lyrical poems titled "Woman on the Terrace" that sheds light on the constant conflict between the desire for freedom and the limitations of domestic life. The new English poems, published in New York, reflect her poignant perception about a poetic self-examination, evoking moments of bewilderment and hopeful resignation to the passage of time and imprisoning conditions of her life. The poems also demonstrate Moon's rebellious language concerning the conditions of women, maintaining a certain poetic tension throughout the book. The repeated theme of the poems in the collection is a woman's experience of confinement. Moon twists the restrictive state into the literary expression of an ardent longing for freedom, and what is notable is her sharp observations that put together social and natural conditions. Besides cooking pots, shopping, and the sacrificed lives of women, she gives us a clear vision of human lives amidst natural phenomena: wildflowers, rain, wind, and fields that take her out into the open, to clear and constant awareness of mortality. Moon's anecdotal and autobiographical poems explore chiefly the desire to escape the fetters of domesticity as a vehicle for understanding a woman's journey, but at the same time her contemplative tone suggests that something larger and more mature is at work in life. “

— The Korea Herald

"Moon's translated poems are likable and  readable to Western readers who do not have a knowledge of Korean poetry and literature. Her poems are sophisticated, bold and beautiful.""

-Yearn Hong Choi - Korean Quarterly  

Accolades
Moon Chung-hee, is one of the most celebrated poets living in South Korea today, was born in 1945. Since her literary debut in 1969 Moon has published eleven books of poems including Wild Rose, For Men, To Young Love, False Love, and A Poppy Flower in Your Hair. She has received prestigious Korean poetry awards including The Sowol Poetry Prize, the Chung Ji-yong Poetry Prize, and the Contemporary Literature Award. She is also the recipient of two poetry awards in Europe. Her poems have been translated into nine languages including German, Spanish and Japanese. A participant in the Iowa International Writers’ Program in 1995, Moon currently holds the Poetry Chair at Dongguk University in Seoul, South Korea. Seong-Kon Kim, is a translator, editor and literary critic, has translated Hwang Tong-Kyu’s Strong Winds at Misi Pass and a collection of whale poems by 50 Korean poets, A Galaxy of Whale Poems. He was Dean of the School of Language Education at Seoul National University. Currently, he is conducting research on Asian American literature at the Harvard-Yenching Institute. Alec Gordon,is a poet, translator and professor teaching at the Graduate School of International Area Studies of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Korea. Among his published books include Cultural Studies in Asia and A Galaxy of Whale Poems. He is presently writing a book of essays on translation, philology, and language.