NOPF Road Show: Nicholls State University, Thibodaux, LA

The New Orleans Poetry Festival takes the show on the road in 2024. In partnership with the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, the Literature Translation Institute of Korea, and Nicholls State University, this event features Korean poets Ha Jaeyoun and Hwang Yuwon, translator and poet Jake Levine, and three poets from Louisiana: Albert Belisle Davis, Jessica Kinnison, and Jonathan Penton. These poets will perform their work, which will be followed by a brief Q&A. Free and open to the public, this event will take place on Wednesday, April 17th, 1pm at Le Bijou Theater in the Donald G. Bollinger Memorial Student Union, 104 Ellendale Dr., Nicholls State University, Thibodaux, LA 70301. More events at https://nolapoetry.com/

Ha Jaeyoun started her career in 2002 when she received the award for best new poet from the journal <문학과 사회Literature and Society>. She received a PhD in Modern Korean Literature from Korea University for her research in 1930’s Korean poetry. She also was the recipient of the 3rd Yeongnam-ilbo Ku Sang Literature prize.

She is the author of the poetry collections, <라디오 데이즈Radio Days> (Moonji, 2006), <세계의 모든 해변처럼Like all the Beaches in the World> (Moonji, 2012), and <우주적인 안녕Universal Hello> (Moonji, 2019). She is also the author of the research books <근대시의 모험과 움직이는 조선어Adventures of Modern Poetry and Moving Chosun Language> (Somyeong Press, 2012), <문학의 상상과 시의 실천The Imagination of Literature and the Action of Poetry> (Bogosa, 2022), <무한한 역설의 사랑Infinite Love of Paradox> (Bogosa, 2022) and the collection of essays <내게 와 어두워진 빛들에게To the darkened lights by the coming of me> (Moonji, 2023).

English translations of her poems appeared in Poems of Hwang Yuwon, Ha Jaeyoun, & Seo Dae-kyung (Edited & Introduced by Jake Levine, Vagabond Press, 2020). In addition, the poetry collection Radion days was published in English(Translated by Sue Hyon Bae, Black Ocean, 2023). After the pandemic started began a series of poems that she has been publishing called “언데드Undead.” and “종의 기원The Origin of Species”.

Hwang Yuwon is a poet, translator. He is the author of 4 collections of poetry, White Deer Lake, Supernatural 3D Printing, You Should See Me in a Crown, and Everything in the World, Maximized. He translates poetry and novels from English to Korean. Among them are The Lyrics: 1961-2012 by Bob Dylan, Moby-Dick by Herman Melville, By the Sea by Abdulrazak Gurnah, Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter, and Glass, Irony & God by Anne Carson.

Jake Levine is an assistant professor of Creative Writing at Keimyung University. He has written and translated or co-translated over a dozen books, including Kim Yideum’s Hysteria (Action Books, 2019) which was the first book to be awarded both the National Translation Award and the Lucien Stryk Prize. He is a former Fulbright Fellow (to Lithuania in 2010), a recipient of a Korean Government Scholarship, served as an assistant editor at Acta Koreana, as a poetry editor at Spork Press, as the managing editor and editor-in-chief at Sonora Review, and currently edits the award-winning contemporary Korean poetry series, Moon Country, at Black Ocean. He has also translated other cultural contents such as Yun Hyong-Keun’s diaries and narration for the K-pop group ENHYPEN. His first full-length book of poetry The Imagined Country is out with Tolsun Books in 2023.

Albert Joseph Davis, a native of Houma, Louisiana, publishes under the name Albert Belisle Davis. He is a graduate of Nicholls State University (B.A.), Colorado State University (M.A.), and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (PhD). Besides a previous collection of poetry with Blue Heron Press, Davis has published two novels with Louisiana State University Press. He has received first-place awards in both the poetry and the novel categories in the Deep South Writers Conference. His most recent publication is Trespassers at Acadia, Collected and New Poems (2024, Mondebon Editions). His biographical listings include the following: Who’s Who Among American Scholars, Directory of American Scholars, Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Education, International Authors and Writers Who’s Who, International Who’s Who in Poetry, and Contemporary Authors. Currently Dean and Professor Emeritus at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, Louisiana, Davis continues to work as a professional writer, poet, and novelist.

Jessica Kinnison‘s work has appeared in Columbia Journal, Phoebe, Entropy, Juked, and The Southern Humanities Review, among other publications. A 2018 Kenyon Review Peter Taylor Fellow, her work has twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. In April 2020, she was listed among eight New Orleans poets to watch in POETS & WRITERS. A Mississippi native, she is co-founder of the New Orleans Writers Workshop and host of the Dogfish Reading Series in New Orleans. She holds an MFA from Chatham University in Pittsburgh where she taught at the Allegheny County Jail.

NOPF Technical Director Jonathan Penton founded UnlikelyStories.org in 1998. Since then, he has lent editorial and management assistance to a number of literary and artistic ventures, such as MadHat, Inc. and Big Bridge. He has organized literary performances, and performed himself, in places like Arkansas, California, Chihuahua, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, and Washington, state and DC. His poetry books are Last Chap (Vergin’ Press, 2004), Blood and Salsa and Painting Rust (Unlikely Books, 2006), Prosthetic Gods (New Sins Press/Winged City Chapbooks, 2008), Standards of Sadiddy (Lit Fest Press, 2016), and the free e-chap BACKSTORIES (Argotist Ebooks, 2017). He serves as Webmaster for this site, NOLAPoetry.com. Photo by David Carlisle.