Ra Heeduk (born 1966) is a South Korean poet and professor.
1. Life
Ra Heeduk was born in Nonsan, South Chungcheong Province. She was raised in an orphanage in which her parents—Christians who sought to carry out the teachings of their religion through communal living—served on the administrative staff. Ra has confessed that the experience of living with orphans had made her a precocious child, and that the recognition of the difference between herself and her playmates early on gave her a unique perspective on the world.
Reportedly, Ra Heeduk stumbled into the life of a poet unintentionally. While struggling between the religious ideals fostered by her parents and the causes upheld by the student movement she encountered in college, Ra sought salvation in poetry. She made her literary debut in 1989 with the poem "Ppuriege" (뿌리에게 To the Roots) winning the JoongAng Ilbo New Writer's Contest.
Ra graduated from the department of Korean language and literature at Yonsei University with both master's and doctorate degrees. She taught creative writing at Chosun University from 2001 to 2018, and as of 2019 teaches at Seoul National University of Science and Technology. She has also served as consultant editor for the Quarterly Changbi and the bimonthly Noksaek pyeongnon.
She is the recipient of the Kim Su-Young Literary Award, the Today’s Young Artists Award, the Hyundae Munhak Literary Award, the Isan Literature Prize, Sowol Poetry Award, the Midang Literary Award, and the Baek Seok Prize for Literature, among others.
2. Writing
Ra Heeduk's poetry is grounded in the force of life and growth as manifested in motherhood and plant life. Her first collection of poems, Ppuriege, and her second, Geu mari ipeul muldeuryeotda (그 말이 잎을 물들였다 The Words Stained the Leaves), pierce the fog of hypocrisy and contradictions cast over daily life while maintaining a spirit of forgiveness and warmth. In order to become receptive to nature, Ra believes it is necessary to listen with her eyes and see with her ears. Such effort is detailed in her third collection of poetry, Geugosi meolji anta (그곳이 멀지 않다 It’s Not That Far From Here), and her fourth, Eoduwojindaneun geot (어두워진다는 것 What Is Darkening), in which Ra juxtaposes “sound” and “darkness” to signal the process of “listening” with the eyes when “seeing” becomes useless as darkness falls.
