CBC Poetry Prize winner Kyo Lee releases 1st book called I Cut My Tongue on a Broken Country

CBC News

· Posted: Apr 13, 2025 8:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 10 minutes ago

A recently released postulation of poesy from 18-year-old Waterloo writer Kyo Lee explores the hunt for emotion done the lens of a young queer Korean Canadian.

In 2023, Lee was 16 erstwhile she became the youngest victor of the CBC Poetry Prize for her poem Lotus Flower Blooming into Breast.

Now, she's released I Cut My Tongue connected a Broken Country, an intimate postulation of poems covering topics including lineage, family, war, and hope.

CBC K-W's The Morning Edition big Craig Norris caught up with Lee to spot what she's been up to since.

This interrogation has been edited for magnitude and clarity. Audio of the interrogation tin beryllium recovered astatine the bottommost of this article.

Craig Norris: It's been astir a twelvemonth and a fractional since we past spoke Kyo. What's changed for you?

Kyo Lee: Not overmuch due to the fact that astir of the publication was written by the constituent that I won the CBC Poetry Prize. I did a batch of editing for that book, which really was rather rigorous. I deliberation it was harder than penning the book. But different than that, I've been doing regular precocious schoolhouse stuff, attending schoolhouse and applying to universities.

I deliberation I've been having a mates of months, possibly a twelvemonth of creative fermentation, arsenic I similar to telephone it. I haven't written that overmuch since I wrote the collection, but I've been trying to beryllium much porous to the world. I've been trying to summation inspiration successful everything that I see.

Craig Norris: And present your publication I Cut My Tongue connected a Broken Country is acceptable to beryllium released. How would you picture this collection?

Kyo Lee: I deliberation of it arsenic a postulation of increasing up portion trying to larn how to love. It's a communicative astir the Asian-American diaspora and astir womanhood and about the struggles, emblematic oregon not typical, associated with increasing up. You know, astir learning however to beryllium yourself truly portion dealing with a clump of antithetic identities and learning, trying to emotion yourself and to emotion the satellite portion increasing up.

Craig Norris: Does poesy bash that for you?

Kyo Lee: Yes, absolutely. I deliberation poesy is benignant of a coping mechanics for me. And it's also the mode I learned how to survive, however to go myself.

LISTEN | Kyo Lee reads The Rain, The Bamboo, The Burning' from her book

Craig Norris: Where bash these poems come from?

Kyo Lee: A lot of the poems are based connected my ain experiences, but I besides bash accidental that they're not ever wholly non-fiction the mode radical expect them to be. Whether that means I'm collecting antithetic images from antithetic experiences successful my beingness and putting them each together.

But I besides bash sometimes conscionable propulsion from antithetic settings, from images from photographs, you know, different artists. And then I put them each unneurotic into 1 scene.

Craig Norris: You besides tally poesy workshops for teens. What is the fig 1 portion of proposal that you springiness to caller writers?

Kyo Lee: Whenever I'm asked that, I deliberation often astir what the manager of Citizen Kane, Orson Wells, said astir however helium made Citizen Kane, which is ignorance and sheer ignorance. Not to comparison myself to Orson Wells, but I deliberation astir that a lot, that the crushed that I was capable to constitute this publication is due to the fact that of ignorance due to the fact that I didn't cognize it was going to beryllium truthful hard.

So I deliberation my proposal is to you person to gaslight yourself a small spot into reasoning that it's not hard astatine all. Tell yourself it'll beryllium casual peasy, that you'll write that publication successful 2 months. And past erstwhile you're successful it, you astir apt won't constitute that publication successful 2 months. But now it's excessively precocious to backmost out. You conscionable gotta commencement and then see wherever that takes you.

WATCH | Former CBC Poetry Prize winner releases a caller postulation of poems:

Craig Norris: This is your past twelvemonth of precocious school. What's adjacent for you?

Kyo Lee: I'll beryllium going to assemblage adjacent twelvemonth and hopefully I'll beryllium studying English. I'm going to Yale, I think, well, I'm astir assured I'll beryllium going to Yale. I conscionable haven't committed officially.

Craig Norris: Congratulations! You besides mentioned that you started penning again, is it poetry?

Kyo Lee: I've been penning possibly the beginnings of a novel. Fingers crossed it becomes much than a beginning. I've besides been penning a small spot of poetry, but I would really similar to research what other I tin do.

LISTEN | To the afloat interrogation with Kyo Lee here