Jae-won Choi
Premium memorialLovingly known as “Jaewon-hyung”
10 April 1983 — 28 March 2025 · aged 41
Poet, editor and late-night walker whose small poems made large rooms feel kinder
Seoul, South Korea Born in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province Resting at Yongin Memorial Park, Gyeonggi Province, beside his fatherAbout Jae-won
Choi Jae-won wrote his first poem on the back of a ramyeon packet at the age of eleven and, according to his sister, never stopped writing on packaging. Born in Suwon in 1983, the son of a Samsung engineer and a schoolteacher, he grew up in an apartment where silence meant concentration and where the only sound at night was a parent turning pages. He studied Korean literature at Seoul National University, graduating in 2008, and a year later his poem 'The Last Bus Home' won the Dong-A Ilbo Spring Literary Contest, the debut every Korean poet dreams about.
By day he was an editor at a small independent press in Mapo, bringing other writers' manuscripts to life with a red pencil and a great deal of tenderness, and by night he walked. Seoul at two in the morning was his study: convenience-store coffee, the Han River bridges, strangers waiting for night buses whose faces became stanzas. He published two collections, A Chair for the Light in 2013 and Soft Weather in 2020, and taught a Saturday poetry workshop for high-school students at a neighbourhood library, where he never once corrected a poem without first finding a line to praise. When his father fell ill in 2022, Jae-won read to him every evening, and when his father died he wrote the only elegy he said he could not edit.
He fed stray cats on the roof of his building, left generous tips, kept a notebook of overheard sentences and believed that kindness was a craft that improved with practice. He loved makgeolli on rainy days, old Korean melodramas and arguing gently about line breaks with his partner, Seo-yeon. He passed away on 28 March 2025, aged forty-one, after a brief illness, in the spring he loved best. He leaves his mother, Kim Mi-sook, his sister Min-jung, his partner Han Seo-yeon and a notebook of unfinished poems that his friends are now gathering into a final book.
“A poem is a small room. Make sure there is a chair for whoever walks in.”
- Place of birth
- Suwon, Gyeonggi Province
- Resting place
- Yongin Memorial Park, Gyeonggi Province, beside his father
- Passed away
- 28 March 2025, Seoul
Funeral Service (Sam-il-jang) & Poetry Farewell
Monday, 31 March 2025 at 11:00 UTC
Add to calendarMemorial fund
Jae-won Choi Poetry Fund
Publish his unfinished poems as a final collection and fund a yearly poetry prize for high-school students at Mapo Public Library.
$4,256 raised of $6,000
71%20 recent contributions
- FB
Father Liam Brennan gave $19 · 1y ago
“In honour of a great man.”
- EH
Emily Hart gave $190 · 1y ago
- AN
Anonymous gave $47.50 · 1y ago
“From the church choir.”
- DB
Dr. Anna Marie Bautista gave $190 · 1y ago
“In honour of a wonderful woman.”
- KC
Kevin Cheruiyot gave $237.50 · 1y ago
Life journey
B.A. in Korean Language and Literature
Seoul National University2002 – 2008 · Seoul
Graduated after a military-service break, with a thesis on modern Korean lyric poetry.
Dong-A Ilbo Spring Literary Contest (Poetry)
Dong-A Ilbo2009 · Seoul
Debuted with 'The Last Bus Home'.
Editor
Independent press, Mapo2010 – 2025 · Seoul
Edited dozens of first books by young Korean writers.
Published A Chair for the Light
Independent press, Mapo2013 · Seoul
His first collection of poems, followed by Soft Weather in 2020.
Volunteer poetry teacher for teenagers
Mapo Public Library2015 – 2025 · Seoul
Ran a free Saturday workshop for high-school students for ten years.
Wrote an elegy for his father
2022 · Seoul
Read aloud at the funeral; he said it was the only poem he never edited.
Tap an organisation to find others who studied or worked there.
Family & connections
Also remembered on Evermore
Jae-won is survived by
- Kim Mi-sook· Mother
- Choi Min-jung· Sister
- Han Seo-yeon· Partner
Tributes & memories
6 people have shared a memory of Jae-won.
Knew Jae-won? Share a memory with the family and everyone who loved them.
Sign in to write a tribute- EH
Translator in Chicago
I translated 'The Last Bus Home' in 2015 and wrote to ask what one word meant. He answered with eleven pages. I have never had a poet reply so generously. The poem is still in print in English because of his patience.
- YT
Fellow poet and editor
Jae-won edited my first collection and cut forty-one of my adjectives. I was furious. The book won a prize. He sent me a text: 'You see? Less is more love.' I will never write an adjective again without asking him first.
- LS
Neighbour in Suwon
He left a book of poems on our doormat when my husband was ill, with a note: 'Read one a day. Skip the sad ones.' We read every poem, the sad ones too. Thank you, Jae-won-ssi, for knowing when to be wrong.
- KH
Former student in his Saturday workshop
He told me my first poem about a convenience store had a line that made him miss his bus. I have never been prouder of anything. I study literature now. I write at two in the morning because he said the city teaches you if you walk it.
- HS
Partner
He read me every poem aloud before he showed it to anyone. If I laughed in the wrong place, he rewrote the line. We argued about commas and he almost always won. Now I read his poems aloud in an empty flat, in my own voice, and I laugh in the wrong places.
- PS
Former colleague of his father at Samsung
His father kept the Dong-A Ilbo clipping in a drawer at the plant and showed it to me once, quietly, when no one was looking. At Jae-won's funeral I told his mother, and she said, 'He knew.' Both of them were so good at silent love.
