Draft:Melanie Hyo-In Han

Melanie Hyo-In Han (born September 29, 1994) is a poet. She is the author of My Dear Yeast (Milk & Cake Press, 2023) and Sandpaper Tongue, Parchment Lips (Finishing Line Press, 2021). She serves as the Co-Editor-in-Chief of Flora Fiction and Korean Translation Editor at Gasher Press.

Early Life and Education
Han was born in South Korea. Soon after, her family moved to Tanzania and she grew up there while attending Rift Valley Academy, a boarding school in Kenya.

Upon graduating from high school, she moved to the United States where she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in English, Spanish, and Linguistics and Master of Education degree in Secondary English and Secondary Spanish from Gordon College. She then received her Master of Fine Arts degree in Poetry and Translation from Emerson College where she taught in the Writing Studies Program.

Currently, she is working towards her Doctor of Philosophy degree in Creative Writing at the University of Surrey where she is critically and creatively examining transnationalism, trauma, and identity and how these concepts are reflected in fragmented form and translingual poetry.

Poetry Collections
Han is the author of full-length poetry collection, My Dear Yeast, which won the 2021 Bill Knott Award and was published by Milk and Cake Press in 2023, and chapbook Sandpaper Tongue, Parchment Lips , published by Finishing Line Press in 2021.

About My Dear Yeast, Moisés Park said: “The multilingual realities of Melanie Hyo-In Han’s images from Korea(n diaspora), Africa(n scenes), and “The West,” invites us to belong, but also acknowledge that her being and existence resist too much familiarity. Her kaleidoscopic humanity is foreign and familiar, impossible to replicate, which leaves us yearning for the satisfaction of fitting in society (as if it were one) or in our own bodies (in plural because we have many). Her poems long for water, roots, or family, or life, or love, or home, or a house, or beauty, or a body, or belongingness, or (in)visibility, or all them because they can all be paradoxically the same. They address family, friends, foes, sanity, sexuality, solitude, community, company, calm. The multifaceted life of a TCK can be uncanny even for those of us who are TCKs.”

About Sandpaper Tongue, Parchment Lips, Rajiv Mohabir said: “In Sandpaper Tongue, Parchment Lips, Melanie Hyo-In Han asks what it means to be an outsider to both language and place while returning the reader-cum-witness to the house of poetry. In plain language Han’s poems pack and unpack the tender complications of the speaker’s puzzling through national belongings whether in Korea, Tanzania, or the United States. The migrating body thrives in rainy seasons, in heartbreak, in alienation, all while baring the intimacy of presence and poetic line.”

Poetry

 * “Homes I Cannot Return to” in Transients Magazine
 * “Let Us Possess One World” in Nothing Much Poetry Magazine (print)
 * “Minari” in Nothing Much Poetry Magazine (print)
 * “Dance Dance Evolution” in Aloka Magazine
 * “Babel’s Legacy” in Aloka Magazine
 * “Roots” in Eclectica Press
 * “Invisible” in Nothing Much Poetry Magazine (print)
 * “Tightrope” in Nothing Much Poetry Magazine (print)
 * “엄마 grew up by the water” in Hanok Review
 * “Project as a Poem” in University of Surrey Doctoral College
 * “Windy Hill” in Lacuna Festivals
 * “The Release” in The MockingOwl Roost
 * “Again and Again” in Nevermore Journal
 * “April 2, 2015” in Stripes Magazine
 * “My ex came to me in a dream last night” in Lacuna Festivals
 * “Abecedarian in 한글 (Hangul)” in Feral: A Journal of Poetry and Art
 * “Tumaini” in Among Worlds Magazine
 * “Korean Survivors of the Japanese “Comfort Women” System” in Valiant Scribe
 * “please don't refuse me” in Peach Velvet Mag (print)
 * “Happy Bi(rth)day” in Serpentine Lit Zine
 * “9” in Mason Street Review
 * “A Necessary Choice” in Constellations
 * “traditions” in Constellations
 * “and you told me” in The Lake
 * “Unrealistic” in Anti-Heroin Chic
 * “Tell Me 사랑해” in Vita Poetica
 * “there were reasons” in Flora Fiction
 * “Morogoro, Tanzania” in Fathom Mag
 * “About Acacias” in Thimble Magazine
 * “To Miss Tranquist” in And So Yeah
 * “Ukombozi Hospital” in The Blue Nib
 * “My Childhood Alphabet” in Among Worlds Magazine
 * “Can I Roll, Slice, Stack Memories” in Among Worlds Magazine
 * “Holding On” in Anti-Heroin Chic
 * “Goodbye, Raven, Goodbye” in Chachalaca Review
 * “You had spent your entire life in one home” in Red Planet Magazine
 * “But this is a pain I enjoy” in Flora Fiction
 * “Onslaught” in Valiant Scribe
 * “Language Miracle” in Culture Miks
 * “Dar es Salaam Delicacies” in Noggy Bloggy
 * “Fertilized Love Giggles” in Noggy Bloggy
 * “Exponential” in Global Poemic

Fiction and Nonfiction

 * “Tumaini La Maisha” in Marrow Magazine
 * “Dispatch from the Morning Calm” in Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo
 * “My Dear Yeast: Embracing and Appreciating Language as Identity” in Tint Journal
 * “Letters to You” in Ruminate Magazine
 * “Corona, Corona: In the Cycle of Grief” in Erraticus
 * “One Liners Abound” in Ponder Savant
 * “Finding Home in Chinatown” in Boston in 100 Words

Reviews and Interviews

 * “Echoes of Resilience” in Jottings Tangents Misc. (print)
 * “Pier-Glass Spotlight” in Pier-Glass Poetry
 * “Fragments of Inspiration: Interview with Melanie Hyo-In Han”in MockingOwl Roost
 * “On Global Anti-Asian Sentiment and Hate-Crimes” in Valiant Scribe
 * “Destinations and Directions to Two Worlds: A Review of Moisés Park’s Y el verso cae al aula” in EcoTheo
 * “Review of Shrapnel Maps by Philip Metres” in Entropy Mag
 * “Featured Poet Interview” in The Blue Nib
 * “My Dear Yeast: Q&A” in Tint Journal

Translations

 * “Hasta marearme de su aroma a paraíso” in Hebel Ediciones from Spanish to English and Korean
 * “Sabios delitos” in Hebel Ediciones from Spanish to English

Awards

 * Modern Sojourners and Multicultural Poets - University of Surrey | Postgraduate Researcher Poster Competition Winner
 * An Abecedarian in English and in Hangul - University of Surrey | “Project as a Poem” Competition Winner


 * My Dear Yeast - Emerson College | Bill Knott Thesis Award Winner
 * Letters to You - Between These Shores | Pushcart Prize Nomination
 * Dar es Salaam Delicacies - The Lyric Magazine | 1st Place Winner
 * Finding Home in Chinatown - Boston in 100 Words | 2nd Place Winner
 * Korean Survivors of Japanese Comfort Women - Valiant Scribe | 2nd Place Winner
 * An Exponential Function - Constellations | 2nd Place Winner
 * Tumaini Wa Maisha - Emerson College | Fiction Honorable Mention

Fellowships

 * Sundress Academy for the Arts - Knoxville, USA | Writers of Color Fellowship
 * Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity - Calgary, Canada | Banff Centre Scholarship
 * The Society of Authors - London, UK | Drusilla Harvey Fund
 * University of Surrey - Surrey, UK | Vice Chancellor’s Studentship
 * Emerson College - Boston, MA | Graduate Fellowship

Personal Life
In 2019, Melanie Hyo-In Han and Emmanuel Roussel, a software engineer from Québec City, got married in the United States. They moved to South Korea and lived in Seoul for a year before relocating to the United Kingdom, where they live now.