Lee, Moon-jae was born in 1959 in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province, Korea. His poems first appeared in Siundong in 1982. The poetic persona of his early lyric poetry can be described as “a young wandering soul.” From his second collection of poetry Sanchaeksipyeon, published in the mid-1990s, Lee turned to ecologism—critical of urban life and industrial civilization. Since the advent of the new millennium, he’s been concerned with the role of poetry in constructing a sustainable future—with a focus on “global imagination for change.” Having previously worked as a reporter for a weekly magazine and an editor for a quarterly literary journal, he currently teaches at university. His publications include the poetry collections Here and Now Is the Very Front, The Empire Hotel, The Furthest Corner of My Mind, and When I Take off My Wet Shoes and Show Them to the Sun; and the essay collection Being Busy Means Being Lazy. Lee has won a number of literary accolades including the Sowol Poetry Award and the Jihoon Literary Award.
