[1] Jang Seoknam was born on August 3, 1965, in Incheon Metropolitan City, South Korea.

Jang earned an undergraduate degree in creative writing from the Seoul Institute of the Arts and a Ph.D. from the Inha University Graduate School of Literature.

[2] Jang debuted as a poet in his early 20s[3] in a New Year's Writers Contest sponsored by the magazine Kyunghyang Shinmun.

[4] LIST Magazine characterizes Jang's work as, "(showing) the stature of a leading poet of lyricism with the purity of memory and an acute sense of language,"[5] and The Korea Literature Translation Institute summarizes his work: Jang's major poetry collections include Defecting to a Flock of Birds (1991); Now, doing my best to long for no one (1995); Teary Eye (1998); Pain in my heart (2001); Where do Smiles Go?

[12] Since May 2018, American poet Paulette Guerin and Nursing Decision Scientist Claire Su-Yeon Park are collaborating on a translation of selected poems and prose for publication.