Dr. David Cho of the Hope College English faculty is the author of Song of Our Songs, a chapbook of poetry published by Finishing Line Press of Georgetown, Ky.

The collection is based primarily on Cho's own life experiences as a Chicago-born and raised child of Korean parents, who immigrated to America in 1971.  The chapbook provides a series of poetic "snapshots" of Cho's own life, and the lives of fellow family members.  And as the title indicates, the poems serve as an homage to the Midwestern and wider Korean American experience.

An assistant professor of English, Cho has been a member of the Hope faculty since 2008.  He has previously had poems published or accepted for publication in journals including "Amerasia," "Many Mountains Moving," "Prairie Schooner," "Theology Today," and the Asian American Special Edition of "Flyway Literary Review."

His areas of scholarly interest include late 19th to 20th century American literature; critical theory and theories of cultural nationalism; American ethnic literatures; Asian American literature; postcolonial literatures and theory; contemporary and modern American poetry and fiction; creative writing; and critical pedagogy.  His academic writing includes a book-length scholarly manuscript, "Lost in Space:  Alternative Narrative, National and Historical Visions of the Korean American Subject in Select 20th Century Korean American Novels," which will be published in 2011 by Peter Lang Pub. Co., along with another book of poems, "Night Sessions," by CavanKerry Press, the publisher of Jack Ridl's recent book of poems, "Losing Season."

Among other honors, Cho was the "Illinois Featured Poet" in "Spoon River Poetry Review" in 2001, received an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship in 2002 and was nominated for the Distinguished Teaching Award for Excellence at the University of Washington-Seattle, from which he holds two graduate degrees.  This summer, Yanbian University of Science and Technology (YUST) in China invited him to deliver an address through its esteemed, international "Vision Lecture" series ( www.yust.edu, English version, www.yust.edu/en/).

Cho completed his BA at the University of Illinois in 1995; an MFA and MA at PurdueUniversity in 1999 and 2001 respectively; and an MAT and Ph.D. at the University of Washington in 2006.  Prior to joining the Hope faculty, he was a Future of American Studies "Seminarian" at DartmouthUniversity.  He was also previously a member of the faculty at North Park University in Chicago, Ill.; Seattle Pacific University; the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Wash.; and Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Ind.

"Song of Our Songs" is available for $14 at the website, finishinglinepress.com, and is on sale at the college's Hope-Geneva Bookstore, on the ground level of the DeWitt Center, 141 E. 12th St.  Copies may be ordered at the bookstore, which can be called at 800-946-4673 or (616) 395-7833.