Poet highlights writers in poverty
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Choi Young-mi
By Yoon Ja-young
Choi Young-mi, a renowned poet known for the bestseller “At Thirty, the Party is Over,” recently confessed on facebook that she is on welfare. The posting called attention to the harsh reality that poets face in the country, where even the most successful ones can’t make ends meet.
“I got a notification from the Mapo District Tax Office that I should file for welfare. It says I am eligible because I earn less than 13 million won a year, have no house and few assets,” wrote the 55-year-old poet.
“It was somewhat shocking. I am glad to get some unexpected money and I should admire the computer system of the tax office for being fair. However, I don’t know how I ended up like this.”
She added that she called a number of professors to plead for a lecturer job to teach poetry at universities. “I begged them to help me since I am in need. It is deplorable to make such a request when considering that I don’t even have a master’s degree in literature.”
She said that she contacted a publisher that had published her poems, and got 890,000 won royalties that the publisher had delayed for more than two years.
Born in 1961, Choi studied western history at Seoul National University and earned a master’s degree in art history at Hongik University.
She was engaged in the democratization movement while attending university in the dictatorial era, but turned to poetry. Her book “At Thirty, the Party is Over,” which she wrote in 1994, earned acclaim on the literary scene, selling over 500,000 copies. A revised version of the book was published last November.
In additional to poetry collections, she wrote novels and collections of essays and also has worked in translation. She won the Isu Literary Award in 2006.
There were a number of comments on her facebook post which pointed out that many artists here are in no better condition. In an interview with local media, Choi said that the more poetry she publishes, the poorer she gets.
According to the culture ministry, the annual income of writers averaged 2.1 million won.