"Han" – a Korean concept – is the central theme of multilingual poetry

06 Dec - 27 Dec 2025

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As a poet and translator who explores themes such as war, migration and displacement in the form of multilingual and fragmented poetry, Melanie Hyo-In Han will develop a manuscript already in progress during her Artistic Residency at Casa Mísia — part of a KEF Portugal programme for which she was selected. Her collection bears witness to the historical trauma and resilience of Korean “comfort women” under Japanese colonial rule, but also speaks to all who have endured the devastation of conflict and to diasporic communities worldwide.

“The Korean concept of han — a collective sorrow born of injustice — is a central theme of my poems, along with universal experiences of survival. In this project, han expands into a universal register of intergenerational sadness but also of hope. By intertwining archival fragments (oral histories, letters and interviews) with new stanzas in English, Arabic, Ukrainian and other languages, I create ‘stanza-fragments’. This polyphonic tapestry reflects the disjunctions of migration and the resilience that emerges from shared experiences of loss, survival and renewal.”

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Melanie Hyo-In Han

Melanie Hyo-In Han was born in Korea, raised in Africa and currently lives in the United Kingdom. She is a PhD candidate in Creative Writing at the University of Surrey. She is the author of Abecedarian: Banff, Canada (kith books, 2025), My Dear Yeast (Milk & Cake Press, 2023) and Sandpaper Tongue, Parchment Lips (Finishing Line Press, 2021). An award-winning poet, Han has received Pushcart Prize nominations and awards from the “Boston in 100 Words” contest, The Lyric Magazine, the International Human Rights Art Movement, among others. She holds degrees in English, Spanish and Linguistics and Master’s degrees in secondary school English and Spanish teaching from Gordon College, and an MFA in Poetry and Translation from Emerson College. As a Third Culture Kid (TCK), her poetry is inspired by her childhood experiences and an investigation into identity and belonging. She is an essayist and translator of English, Spanish and Korean. Currently, Han is the co-editor-in-chief of Flora Fiction and an editor for the Two Languages Prize at Gasher Press.