koreanlit1-4, Exercise 3: One poet (a sample; yours may pick another)

Model answer (Hwang Jini):

Recorded: a famous gisaeng of King Jungjong's reign (about 1506 to 1567), kisaeng name Myeongwol, noted for beauty, wit, intellect, independence, poetry and dance; born in Kaesong; "Only a handful of sijo ... and geomungo pieces exist today".

Marked as legend or uncited: the coffin that stopped at her house, the riddle only one man solved, the mineral water said to flow near her home in 1945, her birth story ("The story goes"), and the claim that her sijo are "the most beautiful ever written".

Uncertain: her parentage (her mother "was either a kisaeng or of cheonmin status").

How to check one: the "handful of sijo" claim: find a scholarly anthology or history of sijo that lists the poems attributed to her, count them, and compare with other sources; note which attributions are doubtful.

Source: Wikipedia, Hwang Jini (tagged for citations and reliability).