Interview with Jaeyun Yoo
Jaeyun Yoo
Jaeyun Yoo is a Korean-Canadian poet and psychiatrist living on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples, also known as Vancouver. Her work has appeared in The /tƐmz/ Review, Prairie Fire, Grain, CV2, EVENT, and others. She recently graduated from The Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser University. She is a member of Harbour Centre 5, a collective of emerging poets. Their collaborative chapbook Brine was published in 2022. @jaeyunwrites on Twitter.
Manahil: This is Canthius’ s tenth issue, and the first for which we have a guest editor, Sanna Wani. Whether you’ve been a long-time reader of Canthius or are just getting introduced us, how did you come to decide what pieces you wanted to share with the magazine?
Jaeyun: I love the diverse, thoughtful voices in Canthius so I wanted to share work that would add to the complexity. I tried to capture nuance in my submissions—tender and stoic, comforting and surprising—similar to Sanna Wani’s poems!
Manahil: I find writing often emerges from a conversation. What conversation is happening in your work?
Jaeyun: Each poem starts as a conversation between the poet and the page. What is the intent? Why this image? How come this poem won’t go where I want it to go?
Once a piece of writing finds its way into the world, it is an opportunity to communicate to a wider audience. In “Mother sleeps”, I am in conversation with you, the reader. How do you feel? What are your thoughts?
Manahil: There’s such a tenderness in the relationship between speaker and mother, where the speaker is a protector of sorts. In your poem, do you figure God as being within the smallness of things?
Jaeyun: I wanted to explore the duality of things in this poem. I was fascinated by small, fragile moments that are powerful, almost spiritual. I was also fascinated by colossal concepts like mortality. So, yes and no, I think God exists in smallness and largeness.
Manahil: What is something you’re working on that you’d like to share!
Jaeyun: I am hoping to put together a manuscript for a chapbook and eventually, a full-length poetry book. I feel like I am trying to make a bracelet with an eclectic mix of beads. I have lots of sorting and refining to do!
Manahil: In closing, what is a poem, story, painting, chapbook, or book you would like to recommend others read?
Jaeyun: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. It is a historical fiction that follows generations of a Korean family affected by Japanese colonial rule, war, and immigration. Highly recommend!