KIM KYUNG JU’s Butterfly Sleep is a historical drama based in the early period of the Joseon dynasty. He relies on a mixture of absurdism, magic realism, and dark humor in order to tell an existentialist allegory of Korea’s rapid development. In this sense, Butterfly Sleep is a story about the fractured soul of the nation. Even more so, it is a lesson in consolation. As Butterfly Sleep unfolds, we drift in and out of song, as music is made in order to comfort the characters in the play. With lyricism and grace, Kim suggests that the only way the ghosts of the nation can be consoled is through direct confrontation. Confront them first, then sing them a lullaby.

Kim Kyung Ju is a Seoul-based poet, dramatist and performance artist. His poetry and essays are widely anthologized in South Korea and his plays have been produced abroad in several countries. He has written and translated over a dozen books of poetry, essays, and plays, and has been the recipient of many prizes and awards, including the Korean government’s Today’s Young Artist Prize and the Kim Su-yong Contemporary Poetry Award. His first book of poetry, I Am A Season That Does Not Exist In This World, is one of the most popular and critically acclaimed collections to debut in South Korea in the new millennium. Jake Levine is an American translator, poet, and scholar. A PhD candidate in Comparative Literature at Seoul National University, he holds a BA and MFA from the University of Arizona. He teaches creative writing at Keimyung University and is a lecturer at the Literature Translation Institute of Korea. He is assistant editor at Acta Koreana and editor for the Korean poetry series Moon Country at Black Ocean.