Portia S. Choi is a public health and preventative medicine physician. Born in Wonju, Korea and previously a resident of Los Angeles, she now enjoys a quieter life in Bakersfield with other community poets, and her husband and two sons. She helps organize Bakersfield's annual celebration of National Poetry Month, enjoys cooking healthy food, and grows flowers and vegetables in her yard.

Sungsook (Poems of the Korean War) is authored by Portia Choi, who as a young child observed first-hand the horrors of that conflict. Choi writes honest, heartfelt poems that portray the courage and resilience of refugees struggling to survive, without sacrificing the charm of the little girl. Rich in sounds and images, the poems recall the terrors of war as well as the pleasures shared with a sister and loving mother. As an adult in California, having immigrated to Los Angeles at age eight, Choi now befriends Korean War veterans and tells their stories too. In this remarkably beautiful poetry, the author draws us into wartime as if we were experiencing it ourselves, step by step and mile by mile.