The Morning News Is Exciting

by Don Mee Choi

Poetry. Asian American Studies. "Cameraman, run to my twin twin zone. A girl's exile excels beyond excess. Essence excels exile. Something happens to the wanted girl. Nothing happens to the unwanted girl. The morning news is exciting." A debut volume from poet, translator, artist and activist Don Mee Choi. Here translation, aberration, mobility and movement corrupt the would-be verities of the world's hegemonic codes. "Choi translates feminist politics into an experimental poetry that demilitarizes, deconstructs, and decolonizes any master narrative."--Craig Santos Perez .

Genres: Poetry, American

120 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2010

About the author

Born in Seoul, South Korea, Don Mee Choi is the author of DMZ Colony (Wave Books, 2020), Hardly War (Wave Books, 2016), The Morning News Is Exciting (Action Books, 2010), and several chapbooks and pamphlets of poems and essays. She has received a Whiting Award, Lannan Literary Fellowship, Lucien Stryk Translation Prize, and DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Fellowship. She has translated several collections of Kim Hyesoon's poetry, including Autobiography of Death (New Directions, 2018), which received the 2019 International Griffin Poetry Prize.

Reviews

[Julene · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives us the window into a Korean family and in particular the dense insights to what it is to be a woman in Korean culture, what it takes to be a family in Korea. There are many undertones that run through Don Mee's writing, she is an important young writer speaking softly while bringing us stories that are necessary. Read her own words, then check out the books she's translated giving a voice to a mostly unheard population.

[Ben Platt · Rating 4 out of 5]

The violence of translation/hybridity, and the way it can be potentially used to wield oppressive or resistive power, animates the collage and lyric alike in this tempestuous collection. The alienation of being without language and home and nation as a colonized subject is grounded in Choi's relentless experimentation, and is usually followed by notes at the end of each section that provide some insight, but of course, don't render the preceding poems entirely legible. Prior to reaching the note at the end of the first section explaining the formal conceit of "Manegg," I wasn't sure if I was going to make it through the collection, but just like with DMZ Colony, Choi's relentless and defiant linguistic work was engaging and interrogative (of the reader, of the colonizer, of the translator, etc.) at different points the whole way through.

[Wuttipol✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

from “Twin Flower, Master, Emily”

Dear Emily,

For poetry – I have you. One need not be a House – One need not be a Nation or a Master for that matter. Delicate and beautiful, common in rich mossy woods, in pairs, we live. We are crimson-pink, particularly in the mountains. The rough terrain is not visible to many, but somewhat green and fatigued, demilitarized! A nod from far away is hollow. True men – How shall I greet them? Nation building is kind and generous. It is common to decline it. Emily, Shall I – bloom?

Yours, Twin Flower

[Morgan McDonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

honestly idk how i even found this book i think i have the only copy in dc if not in america but nonetheless i thought the experimental structure of the prose was really beautiful for capturing the role of translation in colonialism and capitalism

[Marije de Wit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ten stars. ALL the stars.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before I arrived, empire arrived, that is to say empire is great. I follow its geography.

[Quinn Monette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kim Hyesoon comes through strong here, but you can also see Choi working out her own themes/images/poetics. Kind of a grab-bag, in the best way.

[Jenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

“When do tears split into water and salt?”

[Albert]

I read her translations of Kim Hyesoon (김혜순) some time ago so when I came across news of this book I jumped at it. On first reading there were multiple moments where I was just floored. The cover alone is pretty rad. There's definitely something about the Koreanness of this that tugged at the nerves of my own writing. I want to come back to this.

Also, have I mentioned how sick I am of rating culture? Stars can suck it.

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I particularly liked the sections Diary of a Translator and Weaver in Exile. Reads like the lovechild of a diary and a newspaper in two different languages. Choi takes on imperialism and rallies feminism into a refracted view of the self. Beautiful language.

[Allie Moreno · Rating 5 out of 5]

so freaking powerful.

[Paul]

Review at asianamlitfans.

[Greg Bem · Rating 5 out of 5]

I felt my insides roughly tumble upon themselves as I questioned the colonized as a sequence of ideas beneath the banner of the cyclical moon.

[Bobby · Rating 5 out of 5]

I designed this book. Five stars to me.