Kim Sa-in (born 1956) is a South Korean poet, literary critic, and professor.
1. Life
Kim Sa-in was born in Boeun, North Chungcheong Province and studied Korean literature at Seoul National University. Following time in prison for his involvement in the pro-democracy movement in 1977, he began writing poetry and co-founded the magazine Siwa Gyeongje in 1981. The following year, he published the critical essay "Jigeum igoseseoui si" (지금 이곳에서의 시 Poetry Here and Now) in Hangungmunhagui hyeondangye (한국문학의 현단계 The Current State of Korean Literature). Over his career, he has published three collections of poetry, Bame sseuneun pyeonji (밤에 쓰는 편지 Letters Written at Night), Gamanhi joahaneun (가만히 좋아하는 Quiet Devotion), and Eorin dangnagui gyeoteseo (어린 당나귀 곁에서 By a Young Donkey); a monograph on the novelist Park Sang-Ryoong; and a collection of essays. Among his awards are the Sin Dong-yeop Literary Award, the Hyundae Literary Award, and the Daesan Literary Award. Kim has taught creative writing at Dongduk Women’s University and Seoul National University. He was a visiting professor at Harvard University’s Korean Institute, and participated in the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa in 2010. From 2018 to 2021 he served as president of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea.
2. Writing
Kim debuted in the journal Siwa Gyeongje in 1982, during the period of the military government’s oppressive rule. He chose to respond to the pain of the period rather than ignore it, as he made clear in the preface to his first poetry collection: “fragments of an ungoverned rage and pain tear at the heart. But by what other method could I have afforded food in the 70s and 80s?” He therefore tries to foreground “the human” in his poetry. His poems adopt a disciplined form, but the subjects described in them are people from the general walk of life, often deficient in character or even stupid-sounding. The poet thus confesses, “I feel the warmth of humanity more in naivete and clumsiness, rather than in perfection and smoothness.”
Kim defines writing poetry as "questioning things tirelessly." But he emphasizes that the poet should not only ask questions: he must also find answers and actively put them into practice. By the same token, reading poetry means to participate in the poem with one’s whole being, to become a part of the poem. Kim’s poetics involves engagement with the poem, both by the poet who writes and the reader who reads. Poetry without full participation has no meaning.
