The KCLF-21's prehistory starts in early nineties, when a small group of Korean Canadian gentlemen, lovers of poetry, started meeting regularly, while doing their own businesses, to share their poems with each other. They met in various places, mostly, restaurants and community centres, paying for beverages in first places and paying nothing in latter. This group headed by poet Bong-Ho Choi was informally called Baek-ji Literary Club.

The history begins in 1998, when Mr. Dae-Tong Huh, a poet and a tenor in his 60s with the Toronto Pilgrim Male Choir, joined the Club. It was Mr. Huh who realized that their poetry originally written in Korean had gained a considerable amount and quality. He also suggested leaving the limited space of Korean language poetry and started searching other Canadian poets who wrote in other languages.

In 1999, Mr. Dae-Tong Huh proposed publication of a book of poetry. This book edited under the name "Korean-Canadian Literary FORUM-21" by three poets, Sang-Bin Nahm, the then President of the Club, Bong-Ho Choi, and Dae-Tong Huh, and published in October 1999, was entirely in Korean, though. The book's cover page design was done by Eugene Huh, a student majoring in Electrical engineering in UofT.

Meanwhile Mr. Huh was developing ideas about multiculturalism in literature, i.e. he wanted another kind of book. He wanted a book written by multiethnic writers and poets in many languages, including, of course, Korean, his mother tongue, and other languages spoken in Canada. Mr. Huh thought further, that all their poems and stories written in other languages might be more helpful in cultural exchange between Canadians and have a deeper impact on people if the published works were translated into English, Canada's official language. So, the editing group desperately needed translators, specialists in book design, text formatting, graphic design, etc. Mr. Dae-Tong Huh gradually involved young people, one by one, who helped him and his colleagues in creating the next book. more