“My time in Korea was marked by the seasonal shift between autumn and winter. In the space of 7 weeks the landscape had almost completely transformed. The side of the motorway, once flashing with colour, was stripped stark and grey. Leaves whirring in the rain were whipped off in a blink, like a vigorous breath on a dandelion pappus. Wet vegetation pressed into gutters and pavements were collected and stuffed into stacks of polypropene sacks. The heaped sacks were biggest in the Central Park where leaves fall by the mound. The thing about transitions is that the starkness of the change isn’t always felt in the moment but in retrospect. The pleasures of that seasonal shift is the reminder that all cities are experiencing their own change. The passing of time is making its mark on all places. It’s the unavoidable connection we have with every other human, no matter where we are in the world. Time and its passing. Life moves forwards, limits are broken, writing projects develp, friendships are formed, impressions of places are made.”
Angela Sangma
“The Bucheon residency has allowed me the spaciousness with which to allow the cultural and logistical threads of being in Korea with people living here, informally and formally, and their deep impact upon the writing I am doing. I am delighted to see the ways in which my experiences as an American born Korean woman navigating Korea and the complexities of toggling between two cultures are organically affecting the scenes and interiority of my writing. Nothing short of being here could replace the osmosis of my residency expeirence:traveling on the subway, experiencing the food, culture, language, of the country in real time.These experiences inflect nuance in my writing in more ways than I’d hoped for. In short, slipping into this everyday contemporary Korean life, even for these brief short weeks, has brought me closer to my family, my heritage, and given me a deeper sense of my identity while simultaneously stoking further my desire to contribute to the Korean diasporic experience.”
Tricia Park
