E. J. Koh () is an American poet, author, and translator of Korean literature. Her memoir, The Magical Language of Others, received the 2021 Washington State Book Award and the 2021 Pacific Northwest Book Award. Retrieved 2026-07-22. Koh's debut novel, The Liberators, won the 2024 Young Lions Fiction Award.
Early life and education Koh was born in 1988 in San Jose, California. She holds a BA in English from the University of California, Irvine. Retrieved 2026-05-28. She earned an MFA in Creative Writing and Literary Translation at Columbia University and completed her PhD in English Language and Literature at the University of Washington, where she studied Korean American literature, history, and film. Retrieved 2026-05-28. Retrieved 2026-05-28.
Career Koh's poems, stories, and essays have appeared in AGNI, The Atlantic, Boston Review, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Poetry, Slate, Teen Vogue, World Literature Today, and elsewhere. Retrieved 2026-05-28. Retrieved 2026-05-28. She is the co-translator, alongside Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello, of Yi Won’s poetry collection The World’s Lightest Motorcycle, which won the 2022 Literature Translation Institute of Korea’s Translation Grand Prize. Retrieved 2026-05-28.
Koh's memoir, The Magical Language of Others, published in 2020, weaves the stories of four generations of women in Koh's family. Interspersed with letters exchanged between mother and daughter, the text illustrates how language ties them together. It won the 2022 Association for Asian American Studies Book Award and was longlisted for the 2021 PEN/Open Book Award. Retrieved 2026-05-28.Retrieved 2026-05-28.
Her poetry collection, A Lesser Love, was published by LSU Press in 2017 and won the Pleiades Press Editors Prize.
Koh is the recipient of 2020 The Virginia Faulkner Award for Excellence in Writing from Prairie Schooner. Retrieved 2026-05-28. She has received fellowships from the American Literary Translators Association, Jack Straw Writers Program, Kundiman, MacDowell Colony, Napa Valley Writers' Conference, and Vermont Studio Center.
Koh received a 2023 National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship for Poetry. Retrieved 2026-05-28.
Her debut novel, The Liberators, won the 2024 Young Lions Fiction Award from the New York Public Library. Retrieved 2026-05-03. It was a finalist for the 2024 Washington State Book Award and shortlisted for the 2025 Pacific Northwest Book Award. Retrieved 2026-07-22. Retrieved 2026-07-22. Kirkus Reviews gave the novel a starred review, "Koh’s poetic prose delights with surprising metaphors and a cast of skillfully rendered characters. A mesmerizing, delicately crafted novel about survival in the wake of civil war and transpacific imperialism." Retrieved 09-21-2026.
Bibliography Novel
Nonfiction
Poetry Collection
Select Poems "Korean War", The Seattle Review of Books (October 2015) Retrieved 2026-05-28. "Alki The Town of Dreams", Zócalo Public Square (September 2016) Retrieved 2026-05-28. "Icicle Creek", Boston Review (February 2017) Retrieved 2026-05-28. "American Han", Poetry (October 2021) "Pondfields", Poetry (October 2021) Retrieved 2026-05-28. "This Birthday", Poem-A-Day (October 2024) Retrieved 2026-05-28.
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