Kang Eungyo was born on December 13, 1945 in Hongwon, Hamgyeongnam-do. She was raised in Seoul, and graduated from Gyeonggi Girls’ Middle School and Gyeonggi Girls’ High School. She went on to earn her bachelor's degree in English Literature and Ph.D. in Korean Literature from Yonsei University. Kang has a daughter. She made her literary debut with the publication of "Night of the Pilgrims", which earned her the 1968 New Writer Prize, sponsored by the journal World of Thoughts. She was a member of the coterie that published The Seventies along with Kim Hyeong-yeong, Yoon Sang-gyu, Lim Jeong-nam, and Jung Hui-seong. She is at present a professor of Korean Literature at Dong-a University. House of Nothingness, Diary of a Pauper, House of Noises, Red River, Song of the Wind, Song of Sadness, and Letter in the Wall are her most significant poetry collections. Kang was also the recipient of the Korean Writer’s Prize and the Contemporary Literature Award.
Work
In her early career Kang utilized nihilism as a point of departure from which to blueprint a future of free thought and equality between men. In response to the government’s violations of human rights and fundamental liberties during the late 1960s, the poet struggled to map a new path opposed to persecution and oppression; her works contained a measure of hope at the same time despairing at the then social and political situation. This focus resulted in Kang's name being associated with the "people's poetry" movement. Kang was also in the camp of 'lyrical' poets like Heu Young-ja, Chung Jin-kyu, Lee Keun-bae, Kim Huran, Oh Tak-bon, Yoo An-jin, Park E-dou, Ra Tae-joo, Lee Soo-ik, Song Soo-kwon, Oh Sae-young, Lee Geon-cheong, Kim Jong-hae, Shin Dalja, Lim Young-jo, Lee Sung-sun, Moon Chung-hee, Kim Hyeong-young, Cho Jeong-kwon, Hong Shin-seon, Sin Dae-chul, Kim Jong-hae, Kim Jong-chul, Lee Garim, Kim Seung-hee, Lee Jun-gwan, Lee kee-chul, Cho Chang-whan, and Yoon Suk-san Kang's poem "Blades of Grass" demonstrated her concern and affection for the powerful forces of life that shape communities and override any human machinations, including governments. Her later work, less dark and tragic than her previous poetry, contains optimism for the future while it still acknowledges the problems of the social conditions of the time. "Blades of Grass, Arise", one of her most famous poems, uses the vitality and resiliency of grass as a metaphor for the powerful will of life that exists in all mankind. In "I Await You Again Today", the commonplace, ordinary “you” gains a new significance; “you” becomes an entity that has a brilliance in and of itself. Her later works, with their soulful attention to the glory of life and earnest quest for its meaning, place her in the school of poetry known as 'People’s Poetry'. Yet, as Kang's early poetry appropriated and altered the nihilistic school of thought, her later poetry also changed the standards of the "People's Poetry" school. While much of the rest of "people’s poetry" has been criticized for only offering simplistic, normative perspectives of social reality, Kang’s poetry achieved a remarkable balance between the tangible and the abstract, the real and the ideal.
