- Poet Kim Nam-geuk publishes his first youth poetry collection, "Before Turning Twenty"

Poet Kim Nam-geuk's first youth poetry collection, "Before Turning Twenty" (Shineun Sigan), has been released. This collection, the sixth work in the "Shineun Sigan Youth Perspective" series, showcases the poet's experiences and perspectives accumulated over decades of working with adolescents as a teacher.

In previous poetry collections such as "Slept under a Dolbae Tree for One Night," "Came Too Far," and "Farewell Like a Shadow," Kim, who has warmly illuminated various corners of life, has gained readers' empathy. In this new collection, the poet focuses on the voices of multicultural families and rural youth.

Set in Bongpyeong, Gangwon Province, the poems range from the sensibilities of today's children who ask if the Wi-Fi is working or if they can upload photos on Instagram, to confessions like "I feel like I'll become a grandmother before turning twenty." "Before Turning Twenty" does not seek to explain or teach the reality of adolescents but rather narrates stories from their perspective.

The poet does not reveal themselves within the poems. The life of a girl living with her Vietnamese mother, a teenager who decides to study nursing to care for her father who became disabled after an accident, and a child who responds to the statement "It's a multicultural family" with "Everyone grew up in a home with a culture." These lives unfold quietly in everyday language rather than poetic devices.

Poet Ahn Do-hyun emphasized the significance of this collection, stating in the foreword, "The fact that the poet has placed multicultural children as the protagonists throughout the entire collection is a literary event." "Before Turning Twenty" does not confine itself to the stories of a specific group of youth but resonates with readers as the stories of "all youth."

The poems also contain delicate depictions of natural and everyday scenes, such as the cries of a wild goose, frost settling on a cabbage field, and azaleas and royal azaleas blooming on the way to school. In the poem "I Am Nature," the poet's transparent perspective on nature shines as it contrasts human desires with the existence of wildflowers.

"Before Turning Twenty" is not just a simple youth poetry collection. It is a collection that confronts us with another landscape of our society through the perspectives and senses of adolescents. It is a work that resonates deeply not only with adolescent readers but with all those living in this era.