Olan Munson Translator & Editor

Kim Nam-ju (1945–1994) was born in Haenam, South Korea. He was a leading member of the National Liberation Front [남조선 민족해방 전선 준비위원회] and was arrested in 1979, when he subsequently spent the next nine years in prison, writing prolifically, at times by etching his poems into milk carton scraps. With the help of friends outside, Kim debuted his first three books of poetry, as well as a number of translations from behind bars. The work he produced in prison alone totals to around 360 poems.

Olan Munson is an assistant professor of Korean at the Ohio State University. She researches modern Korean and Latin American literatures, with a focus on poetry and translation. She is the co-translator, with Oh Eunkyung, of the poetry book Grotesque Weather and Good People by Lim Solah.

Youngju Ryu is a professor of modern Korean literature at the University of Michigan. She is the author of Writers of the Winter Republic: Literature and Resistance in Park Chung Hee's Korea.