Min Jin Lee

Acclaimed novelist, essayist, and critic Min Jin Lee defines herself in many ways: “immigrant, introvert, working class, Korean, female, public school, Queens, Presbyterian.” Born in South Korea, she immigrated to the United States with her family when she was seven years old. They lived in an apartment building in Queens, New York, “with neighbors who labored long hours as cooks, waiters, cabdrivers, house painters, plumbers, hairdressers, doormen and small shopkeepers.” Growing up, Lee read “promiscuously” in the local public library. “I never knew,” she says, “that people like me could write books or talk in public.” She would go on to study history at Yale University and law at Georgetown Law.

Lee practiced law for two years before deciding to become a writer. Years of rejection followed as she struggled to find her voice. Then, one day, “it occurred to me that I had to write about the disgraced, the poor and the earnest strivers of Queens, and I would be able to tell their stories … because I was a reader.” Books, Lee explained, taught her “how to shape a narrative about my people, from what they had lost and found. In life, even in my life, there was a coming-of-age, tragedy and meaning.” After 11 years of failure, her debut novel (and fourth manuscript), Free Food for Millionaires (2007), found a publisher. The book tells the story of Casey Han, a daughter of Korean immigrants living in New York, and explores the themes of the diaspora and identity. But it was her second book, Pachinko (2017), a sweeping multigenerational epic following the lives of a Korean family living in Japan, that became a New York Times bestseller, bringing Lee widespread acclaim. The book was a finalist for the National Book Award, was named to more than 75 best book lists globally, and was adapted into a series for Apple TV+. Lee has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. She is currently writing her third novel, American Hagwon, and a nonfiction work, Name Recognition.

Instagram: @lee_minjin

Twitter: @minjinlee11