An interview conducted by Maddie Woda Jihyun Yun was first published in The Columbia Review‘s 100th Volume with her piece, “The Leaving Season.” Yun’s writing uses food—its preparation, consumption, and cultural significance—to reflect on themes like womanhood and familial grief. Her first book of poetry (which includes “The Leaving Season”) won the Prairie Schooner Book Prize…
The Oldest College Literary Magazine in the Nation
From September, 2020
Starving and Sated
Editor (now alumna) Maddie Woda reviews Jihyun Yun’s first collection, Some Are Always Hungry. In 2016, I stumbled upon Jihyun Yun’s poem “Recipe: Dak-dori-tang” in BOAAT. A freshman in Columbia’s English program, I was beginning to develop my taste for poetry. I liked narration, freshness, unapologetic earnestness. I did not want too much room for interpretation, worried I’d fall through the cracks and say something ridiculous in class. I preferred James Wright to John Ashbery. I could not name any poets who were not deceased white men. I read “Recipe: Dak-dori-tang” and immediately fell in love with Yun’s style. While…