Unexpected vanilla by Hye-mi Yi and translated by So J

This is poetry from Korea, Republic of.

Unexpected vanilla by Hye-mi Yi translated by So J is published by Tilted Axis Press. This is a Book originally written in Korean. This was published in 2020.0 and has the ISBN of 9.781911284505E12.

Unexpected Vanilla, by Yi Hye-mi and translated by So J, has a title that feels delicate, playful, and stranger than it first appears. Vanilla is familiar, sweet, sometimes dismissed as plain, but the unexpected vanilla turns flavor into surprise. In this Korean poetry collection, I would expect attention to sensory detail, intimacy, contemporary life, and the odd charge that appears when ordinary things refuse their assigned blandness. Tilted Axis Press often brings formally alert, contemporary Asian writing into English, and So J’s translation likely preserves the poems’ agility and tonal freshness. I would read this book as a reminder that subtlety is not the opposite of intensity. Sometimes the most interesting poems begin with something small, pale, fragrant, and supposedly harmless, then let it become uncanny.

If you’d like to see international poetry continue and gain traction, consider requesting this work from your local library, or purchasing it from places like Open Books (a poetry only bookstore), Asterism Books (an independent press distributor), or bookshop.org to connect you with your local bookstores.

Check out more of the always in-progress translated poetry index here.