Sijo Festival, headed by professor David McCann, at the Sejong Cultural Society (April 9th-30th, 2010)
The Sejong Cultural Society (Sejong Society), whose mission is to bridge Korean, American, and Korean- American cultures in the multicultural context of U.S. society, announces the fifth year of its writing competition, and the third year in which that competition has encompassed a special form of Korean poetry known as sijo (pronounced “SHEE-joe”).
Last year, the Sejong Society’s sijo competition garnered over 450 entries, 87percent of them submitted by non-Korean-Americans. The leaders of the Sejong Society are using this year’s writing competition to once again introduce the beautiful poetic form of sijo, a traditional three-line form of poetry usually addressing spiritual or pastoral themes, to a broader audience in the U.S., in accordance with the society’s goal of familiarizing Americans with fascinating, easily learnable elements of traditional Korean culture.
Sijo has evolved over the centuries in Korea as an elegant, popular literary form that has attracted many talented writers. Americans who have studied the Japanese art of haiku will recognize certain similarities, though the two forms are quite distinct, and developed independently of each other. The Sejong Society’s website (www.sejongculturalsociety.org) offers an introduction to sijo, and instructions on how to begin writing in that form. The deadline for submissions to this contest will be April 30, 2010. The site also provides information on the other aspect of the writing competition, the essay competition.
The Sejong Society will award scholarships of various amounts, from $50 to $500, in two different age-based categories; winners’ submissions may also be published in Korea Times Chicago, a local Korean-American newspaper. Both the sijo and essay competitions are open to high school students of any ethnic background. For more details, please see the website.
Support for this competition comes from a grant from the Korea Foundation to produce a teaching primer for sijo that can be used as a part of the English curriculum in order to facilitate this endeavor. To, in effect, kick off this effort, Sejong Society will be holding the following events in April, 2010:
- April 9 (Fri) 10 am -3 pm: English Sijo Writing Workshop headed by Harvard Professor David McCann for high school English teachers at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Student Center East (Suite#613), 750 S. Halsted St. Chicago
- April 10 (Sat) 11 am-1 pm: lecture on sijo and sijo Reading by Professor David McCann for the general public in the Chicago Author’s Room on the 7th floor of the Harold Washington Library Center, 400 S. State St. Chicago (312-948-8939)
- April 10 (Sat) 6-8pm: “Enchanted Evening with Sijo, Wine, and Arts”, sijo reading and reception with Professor David McCann at the Andrew Bae Gallery, 300 W. Superior St. Chicago (312-335-8601)
- April 30 (Fri): Deadline for 5th annual Sejong Writing Competition (essay and sijo)
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