Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Translating Mo’um | 2002 | Cathy Park Hong | Buy |
| 2 | Dance Dance Revolution | 2007 | Cathy Park Hong | Buy |
| 3 | Engine Empire | 2012 | Cathy Park Hong | Buy |
Cathy Park Hong’s three poetry collections chart her development as an experimental poet. Translating Mo’um (2002) was her debut, exploring the Korean language and the experience of translation between cultures. The title refers to Korean vowels, and the collection plays with the spaces between languages.
Dance Dance Revolution (2007) is her most formally inventive collection, set in a fictional city called the Desert and narrated partly in a pidgin language that mixes English, Korean, and other tongues. Engine Empire (2012) is organized into three sections that move from the American frontier to a contemporary boomtown to a futuristic city, using different historical moments to examine industrialization and empire. All three collections show Hong’s interest in how language shapes identity and power.