FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Mundus Artium Press, housed at The University of Texas at Dallas, is proud to announce that So Long by Sun Hyang Kim has been selected as the Book of the Year 2026 by the Mihai Eminescu International Academy, an international literary organization based in Craiova, Romania.
The academy’s selection committee unanimously recognized the poetry collection for “its poetic depth, exceptional clarity, and resonant artistic vision.” The academy president, Dr. Ion Deaconescu, said that “through its eloquent voice and profound human insight, So Long exemplifies the enduring power of poetry to foster understanding, compassion, and meaningful human connection.”
So Long distills poetic achievements spanning three volumes published by Sun Hyang Kim over thirteen years, beginning with Verse Diary (2012), followed by Golden Roses (2021) and The Day, The Flower (2024). The collection captures both the evolution of Kim’s work and the essence of her poetic world. Her poems, pioneering the vital genre of the “Verse Diary,” are marked by refined language that conveys emotions rooted in personal experience.
Mundus Artium Press president Gjekë Marinaj said, “Sun Hyang Kim’s poetry dwells between equilibrium and rupture, transforming the ordinary into meditations of lyrical force and uncommon wisdom. Lucid, intimate, and formally assured, her work joins emotional ardor with disciplined cultivation. Its recognition as Book of the Year by the Mihai Eminescu Academy honors a singular poetic voice of enduring distinction.”
Informed by the poet’s personal journey from North to South Korea, Kim’s collection reflects turbulent eras. Several poems provide intimate meditations on her own involvement in behind-the-scenes interactions and front-and-center transactions that have shaped Korean identity—the Korean War, the inter-Korean summits, and the meetings of long-separated Korean families. Throughout, Kim’s vision combines the sensibility of a poet with the perspective of a historian.
So Long was met with such acclaim that it sold out immediately upon its initial release. Now in its second edition, the book reaffirms Sun Hyang Kim’s place as one of the most evocative poetic voices of her generation.
The Mihai Eminescu International Academy, established in 2003 and named in honor of Romania’s national poet, is an apolitical, non-governmental, and non-profit cultural institution. Its founding members included Nobel laureates Czesław Miłosz and Wole Soyinka.
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