Kim Ki-taek (born 1957) is a modern Korean poet.
1. Life
Kim Ki-taek was born in 1957 in Anyang, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. While many artists consider regular work, particularly the life of a white-collar worker, as a hindrance to creativity, Kim Ki-taek has successfully achieved a career as a poet while also working full-time. Kim was raised as an orphan, having been sent to an orphanage in Anyang from the Seoul Municipal Children's Hospital in 1961. Thus, Kim had to fend for himself from an early age and adapt to varied social situations. This history has given him a strong desire to have a stable position in society. [1]
Kim studied English literature at Chung-Ang University and earned his Ph.D. in Korean literature from Kyung Hee University. He made his literary debut in 1989, winning the Hankook Ilbo New Writer's Contest with the poems "Gamum" (가뭄 Draught) and "Kkopchu" (꼽추 Hunchback). He is the recipient of the Kim Su-Young Literary Award (1995), the Hyundae Munhak Literary Award (2001), the Midang Literary Award (2004), the Jihoon Literary Award (2006), and the Sanghwa Poetry Award (2009), among others.
Kim currently serves as a professor at Kyung Hee Cyber University.
2. Writing
Kim's poetry is unsentimental and focuses on human physicality and the relationship between the body and the violence inflicted upon it. Fear and compulsion are integral parts of the human body, the poet believes. Material and psychological violence inflicted on the human body leaves its mark behind, and this mark eventually manifests itself in various habits that continue to inform one's sense of self. Kim carefully observes this process and records it in his poetry.
A series of his poems linked by a common motif —"Jwi" (쥐 Mouse), "Horangi" (호랑이 Tiger), "Baem" (뱀 Snake), and "So" (소 Ox) — focus on the instinct to survive. The tension resulting from the violence and pain inherent in the game of survival is depicted without any sentimentality. However, the cold logic of survival that colors Kim's poetic world is pierced by the presence of new life such as “a biddy crying in front of a subway station” and “the sound of an insect coming from a TV in the middle of the night.” In the history of violence and pain etched into our body over many generations, the poet discovers a glimpse of a wondrous new world featuring purity, innocence and mystery.
