1961년 서울에서 태어났다.
1992년『창작과 비평』 겨울호에 “속초에서” 외 7편의 시를 발표하며 작품활동을 시작했다.
시집 <서른, 잔치는 끝났다> <꿈의 페달을 밟고> <돼지들에게> <도착하지 않은 삶> <이미 뜨거운 것들> <다시 오지 않는 것들>, 영문시선집 <The Party was Over> 장편소설 <흉터와 무늬> <청동정원>, 산문집 <시대의 우울> <우연히 내 일기를 엿보게 될 사람에게> 등을 출간했다.
"정확한 문장이 아름답다고, 옳은 문장은 세상을 바꾸는 힘이 있다고 나는 아직도 믿는다. "
–최영미
Choi Young-Mi is a poet and novelist from the Republic of Korea, and is one of the defining figures who ignited the #MeToo movement in Korea.
Born in Seoul, Korea in 1961. She received her B.A. in Western History from Seoul National University and an M.A. in Art History from Hong-ik University. Faced with the military dictatorship of 1980's, she participated in student protest demanding for democracy. As a result, she was detained at police station for 10 days and was suspended from university for a year.
Choi Young-Mi was one of a secretive group of translators who dared to translate Karl Marx's Capital for the first time after Korean War; this translation was published under a single pseudonym in 1987.
Her first volume of poems At Thirty, the Party was Over (1994) came across as a shock to the literary world and to the Korean society thanks to her fresh realism, delicate but bold expressions, and the piercing satire on capital and authority. The book has sold over half a million copies. The poem “In Sun-un Temple” received love from nationwide and was sung by many different singers.
She is the author of poetry collections At Thirty the Party was Over (1994, 2015), Bicycling in Dreamland (1998), To The Pigs (2005, 2014), Life that has yet to Arrive (2009), Things Already Hot (2013), and What will not come again (2019) which includes the poem “Monster” and other #Metoo poems.
In 2019 Choi established the publishing company (Imi Books) and published her 6th volume of poems What will not come again, and The Party Was Over (her first selected poetry in English)
She is the author of the novels Scars and Patterns (2005, 2017) and Bronze Garden (2014). She has translated “Francis Bacon in Conversation with Michel Archimbaud”(1998) and“D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths”(1999) into Korean.
She received the Isu Literary Award for To the Pigs in 2006, and Things Already Hot was selected as Book Culture Foundation's Literary Book of Excellence in 2013.
In 2017, she wrote the poem "Monster" that exposed the sexual harassment and abuse by the old poet En. When her poem "Monster" released, the public immediately noticed that 'En' is Ko Un (the most revered Korean poet), which ignited the #Me Too movement.
Her revelation of Ko's molestation has played a major role in exposing the sexual harassments and assaults infested deep inside the Korean society, For this contribution, the Metropolitan City of Seoul has decided to present Choi Young-Mi with the grand prize of Sex Equality Award 2018.
Poet Ko sued her for defamation in summer 2018, but he has lost the case against Choi Young-Mi. The Seoul Central District Court (Feb. 15, 2019) sided with Choi saying her allegations of sexual harassment were credible.
Poet Ko sued her for defamation in summer 2018, but he has lost the case against poet Choi Young-Mi. The Seoul Central District Court (Feb. 15, 2019) sided with Choi saying her allegations of sexual harassment were credible. The court said her testimony was "consistent and specific," while there was "little reason to doubt the veracity of her claims."
Ko appealed to the Seoul High Court against the first court's ruling, but he also lost the appeal. The damages suit he filed against Choi Young-Mi was finally settled with the victory of poet Choi, as Ko gave up his appeal to the Supreme Court.