Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Outsiders Within: Korean language edition to be released in 2012!

Six years ago, my poem "Evolve" was featured in the groundbreaking anthology Outsiders Within from South End Press in 2006.

The anthology was organized around the use of compelling essays, fiction poetry, and art to explore the intimate form of globalization, transracial adoption. It was an unmediated voice of adults who had matured within the experience, presenting a view adoption as an institution that pulls apart old families and identities and grafts new ones.


This year, the Korean language edition will be released by KoRoot Publishing. It's hard to believe it's been over half a decade since it was first published, and I'm interested in seeing how it's received abroad. Many of the contributors have since gone in some fascinating directions.

KoRoot is most well-known as a guesthouse for adoptees returning to Korea. Recently, KoRoot has started publishing books as part of its activism seeking social justice for adoptees and vulnerable families, especially "unwed mother" families in Korea, whose children are especially at risk of family separation. Outsiders Within was chosen as the first book for the press. http://www.koroot.org

Other books that KoRoot will publish include Adoption Healing for Mothers by Joe Soll and The Primal Wound by Nancy Verrier.

 

A big congratulations to the editors, because I know it was no small feat translating so many diverse voices into Korean. Here was a reading of Evolve that I gave at the American release party on November 18th, 2006 in Minneapolis.


As a note, "Evolve" has not been included in any of my other collections to date. 

1 comment:

The Vox said...

Wow. I'd never heard of this book until I read your post. What's I find interesting about it is that it's an intellectual breakdown of cultures as well as how different parts of the world view certain races. Now I have to read this book!