DMZ Colony

DMZ Colony is a book of poems, prose and images by Don Mee Choi, a poet and translator who was born in Seoul and later moved to the United States. Taking its name from the demilitarized zone that divides the Korean peninsula, the book confronts the long aftermath of war, division and foreign military presence in Korea. Choi draws on the testimonies of people whose lives were shaped by that history, including survivors of state violence and former political prisoners, and places their voices alongside her own memories, drawings, photographs and handwritten texts. Moving between languages and forms, the book treats translation itself as a way of bearing witness and resisting the erasure of painful histories. It is an inventive, documentary work for readers interested in poetry, history and human rights. It won the 2020 National Book Award for Poetry.