Elated to have this piece feat. in BWR's new issue! It's been such a pleasure to work with the staff. Writing this was my first time working with experimental translation, and I found in it a space for mourning and celebration. Background on the piece available in the thread: https://twitter.com/BlackWarriorRev/status/1252668864749400064

I was helping my parents unpack after a recent move, and I found a trophy from when I was attending preschool and living with my maternal grandparents in Cheonan (천안), South Korea for a short time. My grandparents operated a rice/cigarette store in the neighborhood.

The trophy, from an oratory contest, had a broken arm, and I was surprised that my grandparents had sent me back to the US with this object. It was buried in an box of trophies I had accumulated over the years growing up in Korean immigrant communities in the American South--

Korean language school, the Korean Catholic church my family attended, contests hosted by regional culture and business associations and Korean language newspapers. I had never really paid attention to the language on these trophies. Upon closer look, the first trophy was from an

oratory contest in honor of the Korean independence fighter Ryu Gwansun (류관순) whose hometown is Cheonan (also home to the Independence Hall of Korea). The text: "(상) / 순국소녀류관순열사추모제기념 / 제15회나라사랑웅변발표대회 / 1993. 10. 24 / 주최 : 대한웅변협회충남도지부"

My attempt to translate and make sense of this abraded text became the seed for these experimental translations that attempt to unpack a dusty collection of trophy texts and possibly to translate positionality.

I looked up alternate translations for the word for award 상 [sang] and revisited the trophies as sites of mourning, memorial, ideology, and more. Trophy text seemed similar to tombstones: there's often a name, a date, an event, place, a sponsor, an identity, etc.--it places you

and I wanted to explore this thread further. Writing this piece helped me introduce experimental translation into my poetry practice. So grateful that the piece found a home with BWR!