Background

Tanya Ko was born on the 23rd of June, 1964 in Anyang, South Korea. She was surrounded by lots of western cultures through the base and, simultaneously, by her own Korean culture. When she was 18 years old, Ko emigrated to the United States where she had a typical immigrant life. The circumstances were hard. Like most immigrant parents, her father worked two jobs. He worked in a dry-cleaning shop and cleaned offices and her mother was still in Korea.

Education

Tanya Ko was educated at a public high school. She then studied at Biola University in 1992 and 1993. From 2000 to 2001 she attended Hope University. Tanya also received a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles.

Career

Tanya Ko began her career as a specialist with women's program for the Young Women's Christian Association of the Greater Los Angeles Area in 1994-1997. She was also an artist-in-residence at Living Tree Conference and a public speaker.

Tanya Ko writes in both English and Korean, and in 2015 and 2018, she translated Arthur Sze’s poems into Korean. She worked as a freelance writer from 1996. In 2002 she wrote “Mother's Diary from Generation 1.5” and in 2003 her “Yellow Flowers on a Rainy Day” was published.

Presently, Tanya lives and works in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.

Achievements

• Tanya Ko’s work has appeared in such journals as Beloit Poetry Journal, Two Hawks Quarterly, Rattle, and Writers at Work. She is also the author of several books of poetry. Ko’s poem "Comfort Woman" received honorable mention in the 2015 Women’s National Book Association. The author was a finalist in Frontier’s Chapbook Contest and was Pushcart nominee. Tanya was the inaugural poet at Spiraling, the Paris Press blog.
  
  

Works

More photos

• book

  • Yellow Flowers on a Rainy Day

    (In simple and touching poetry, Yellow Flowers on a Rainy ...)

    2003
  • Mother's Diary from Generation 1.5

    (Mother's Diary from Generation 1.5 is written in Korean. ...)

    2002

Views

Weaving together two cultures, Tanya’s poetry gives voice to multiple generations of Korean and Korean-American women. She is an ongoing advocate of bilingual poetry and promoting the work of immigrant poets.

Membership

Tanya is a member of a number of organizations such as the Korean American Poets Association, the Korean American Literature Association, and the Korean American Christian Literature Association.

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• "Tanya Ko-captures in these spare, elegant poems, a world of cruelty, suffering and survival. Here is beauty juxtaposed with pain so deep it's almost impossible to put into words. And yet this fine poet does just that. She breaks our hearts with the truth and astonishes us with her compassion." – Ellen Bass

Interests

• Working out, walking on the beach.

Connections

Tanya is married to Patrick S. Hong. They have three children, Soolgi, Jungi, and Ingi.

child:

Soolgi Hong

child:

Jungi Hong

child:

Ingi Hong

husband:

Patrick S. Hong