Yearn Hong Choi, a poet and writer, came to Indiana University as a foreign student in 1968 , earned his doctorate degree in political science,  taught at the University of Wisconsin , Old Dominion University and the University of Seoul, and worked for the United States Government. He now enjoys his life as a retiree in Virgnia. He is the founding president of the Korean Poets and Writers Group in the Washington Area and of the Korean-American Poets Group. He authored a couple of poetry books, Autumn Vocabularies and Moon of New York. He has edited Surfacing Sadness: A Centennial of Korean-American Literature and three Korean-American poetry books, Mother and Dove, Fragrance of Poetry and An Empty House. His essays have been published in the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, the Washington Times, the Virginian-Pilot, Indianapolis Star, and the Japan Times among other daily newspapers.   His poems were translated into Portuguese and published in Brazil in 1975 by a professor and his graduate students in comparative literature class in the University of Espirito Santo.

He has received the Korea Times Literature Translation Award, the Han Ha-woon Poetry Award, and the Yoon Dong-ju Poetry Award.