DMZ Colony (Don Mee Choi)

I’ve been consistently surprised by how formally experimental some of the recent National Book Award winners have been in the poetry category, including this book.

DMZ Colony alternately straddles and zig-zags across the line between lyric, journalism, translation, found poetry, and concrete poetry. The name pretty well conveys the subject matter, but it’s worth mentioning that this book addresses the brutality of both North and South Korea with an eye particularly on the post war period.

The lack of clarity between what is direct accounts given poetic treatment and the imagination of the author taking off from interviews/found documents is unclear, which IMO, gives this book a lot of its force.

I put a hold on Don Mee Choi’s The Morning News is Exciting at the library, so more to come on her work.

Rating: 🔥🌟☄️🌟☄️🌟🔥