"In The War Still Within, Tanya Ko Hong weaves a scarlet thread from Korea to the United States, from World War II to yesterday, from ancient stories to cell phone calls--this blood-soaked thread is the suffering of women and the legacy handed down from mother to daughter, for generations and across continents. These poems invoke exquisite imagery to tell the truth about exploitation, cruelty, betrayal, and displacement. The stories of these women burn themselves into your heart."
--Terry Wolverton, poet, novelist, and author of 12 books, including Ruin Porn
The War Still Within is the poet's fifth book, and contains 36 poems (25 of which are reprinted from a range of literary venues). This collection also includes "Comfort Woman," her well researched and vividly imagined sequence of six poems based on the experiences of the Korean "comfort women" who were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II.
Ellen Bass, Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and author of ten books of poetry and nonfiction, writes this about "Comfort Woman"
"Tanya Ko Hong captures in these spare, elegant poems, a world of cruelty, suffering, and survival. Here is beauty juxtaposed with pain so deep it's almost impossible to put into words. And yet this fine poet does just that. She breaks our hearts with the truth and astonishes us with her compassion."