Min Jin Lee - Wikipedia

Min Jin Lee - Wikipedia



Min Jin Lee
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This is a Korean name; the family name is Lee.
Min Jin Lee
Hangul 이민진
Revised Romanization Yi Minjin
McCune–Reischauer Yi Minjin


Lee at the 2017 Texas Book Festival.

Min Jin Lee (born 1968) is a Korean American writer whose work frequently deals with Korean American topics.[1] She is the author of the novel Free Food for Millionaires.



Contents [hide]
1Background
2Fiction
2.1Short Fiction
2.2Free Food for Millionaires
2.3Pachinko
3Non-Fiction
3.1Reviews
3.2Essays
4Bibliography
4.1Short stories
4.2Novels
5Accolades
6References
7External links


Background[edit]

Lee was born in Seoul, South Korea. Lee's family came to the United States in 1976, when she was seven years old. She grew up in Elmhurst, Queens, New York.[1] Her parents owned a wholesale jewelry store there. She studied history at Yale Collegeand law at Georgetown University Law Center. She also worked as a corporate lawyerin New York for several years before becoming a writer. She lived in Japan for four years from 2007 to 2011. Lee lives in New York with her son, Sam, and her husband, Christopher Duffy, who is half-Japanese.

Lee also served three consecutive seasons as a "Morning Forum" English-language columnist of South Korea's newspaper Chosun Ilbo.[2]

She has also lectured about writing, literature, and politics at Columbia, Tufts, Loyola Marymount University, Stanford, Johns Hopkins (SAIS), University of Connecticut, Boston College, Hamilton College, Harvard Law School, Yale University, Ewha University, Waseda University, the American School in Japan, World Women’s Forum, the Tokyo American Center of the U.S. Embassy and the Asia Society in New York, San Francisco and Hong Kong.[3]
Fiction[edit]
Short Fiction[edit]

Lee's short story Axis of Happiness won the 2004 Narrative Prize from Narrative Magazine.

Another short story by Lee, Motherland, about a family of Koreans in Japan was published in The Missouri Review and won The Peden Prize for Best Short Story. A slightly modified version of the story appears in her 2017 novel Pachinko.

Lee's short stories have also been featured on NPR's Selected Shorts.[4]
Free Food for Millionaires[edit]

Her debut novel Free Food for Millionaires was published in 2007. It was named one of the Top 10 Novels of the Year by The Times,[5] The Times of London, NPR's Fresh Air, USA Today, a notable novel by the San Francisco Chronicle,[6] a New York TimesEditor's Choice,[7] was a selection for the Wall Street Journal Juggler Book Club,[8] and a No. 1 Book Sense pick. The novel was also published in the U.K. by Random Housein 2007, Italy by Einaudi and in South Korea by Image Box Publishing. The book has also been featured on online periodicals such as The Page 99 Test,[9] and Largehearted Boy.[10]

In 2017, a 10th Anniversary edition of the novel was released by Apollo.[11][12]
Pachinko[edit]

In 2017 Lee released a novel entitled Pachinko, which is an epic historical novel following characters from Korea who eventually migrate to Japan. The book received strong reviews including those from The Guardian,[13] NPR,[14] The New York Times,[15] The Sydney Morning Herald,[16] The Irish Times,[17] and Kirkus Reviews[18]and is on the "Best Fiction of 2017" lists from Esquire,[19] Chicago Review of Books,[20] Amazon.com,[21] Entertainment Weekly,[citation needed] the BBC,[22] The Guardian,[23] and Book Riot.[24] In a Washington Post interview, writer Roxane Gaycalled Pachinko her favorite book of 2017.[25]

Pachinko is a 2017 finalist for the National Book Award for fiction.[26]
Non-Fiction[edit]

Lee has also published non-fiction in periodicals such as the Times of London, the New York Times Magazine, Condé Nast Traveler, Vogue, Travel + Leisure, the Wall Street Journal and Food & Wine.
Reviews[edit]

Lee has written a number of reviews. She most recently wrote a review of Toni Morrison's Home in the Times of London,[27] and also a review in the Times of Londonof March Was Made of Yarn, edited by David Karashima and Elmer Luke, a collection of essays, stories, poems and manga made by Japanese artists and citizens in the wake of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.[28] She also wrote Times of Londonreviews of Cynthia Ozick's Foreign Bodies[29] and Jodi Picoult's Wonder Woman: Love and Murder.[30]
Essays[edit]

Her essays include Will, anthologized in Breeder – Real Life Stories from the New Generation of Mothers (Seal Press Books, 2001) and Pushing Away the Plate, in To Be Real (edited by Rebecca Walker) (Doubleday, 1995). Lee also published a piece in the New York Times Magazine entitled Low Tide, about her observations of the survivors of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.[31] She wrote another essay entitled Up Front: After the Earthquake in Vogue, reflecting upon her experiences living in Japan with her family after the 2011 Tohoku earthquake.[32] Lee has also written two other essays in Vogue, including Weighing In (2008) and Crowning Glory (2007).

An essay entitled "Reading the World" that Lee wrote appears in the March 26, 2010 issue of Travel + Leisure.[33] She also wrote an article profiling the cuisine and work of Tokyo chef Seiji Yamamoto in Food & Wine.[34] She has also written a piece for the Barnes & Noble review entitled, Sex, Debt, and Revenge: Balzac’s Cousin Bette,[35]

Her interviews and essays have also been profiled in online periodicals such as Chekhov's Mistress (My Other Village: Middlemarch by George Eliot),[36] Moleskinerie(Pay Yourself First),[37] and ABC News (Biblical Illiteracy or Reading the Bestseller).[38]

Her other essays have been anthologized in The Mark Twain Anthology: Great Writers on His Life and Works, Why I’m A Democrat (Ed. Susan Mulcahy), One Big Happy Family, Sugar in my Bowl and Global and the Intimate: Feminism in Our Time.
Bibliography[edit]
Short stories[edit]
Axis of Happiness (2004) – 2004 Narrative Prize from Narrative Magazine
Motherland (2004) – Peden Prize for Best Short Story, The Missouri Review
Novels[edit]
Pachinko (2017), Grand Central Publishing, ISBN 978-1-455-56393-7
Free Food for Millionaires (2007), ISBN 978-0-446-58108-0.
Accolades[edit]

She received the NYFA (New York Foundation for the Arts) Fellowship for Fiction, the Peden Prize from The Missouri Review for Best Story, and The Narrative Prize for New and Emerging Writer.[39]

While at Yale, she was awarded both the Henry Wright Prize for Nonfiction and the James Ashmun Veech Prize for Fiction.[40]

In 2017, Lee is a finalist for the National Book Award for fiction for her novel Pachinko.[26]
References[edit]

^ Jump up to:a b "Min Jin Lee", KQED Arts, retrieved 2011-09-29
Jump up^ MinJinLee.com, Being A Columnist, http://minjinlee.com/media/being_a_columnistchosun_ilbo
Jump up^ MinJinLee.com, About, http://minjinlee.com/about/
Jump up^ Ginny Too, Interview: Min Jin Lee, Asian American Writer's Workshop, http://www.aaww.org/events_interviews_lee.html
Jump up^ Saunders, Kate (2007-11-30), The Times Christmas choice: fiction, London: The Times, retrieved 2009-01-03
Jump up^ Villalon, Oscar (2007-12-23), Bay Area authors' books among best of '07, San Francisco Chronicle, retrieved 2009-01-03, http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/Bay-Area-authors-books-among-best-of-07-3299646.php
Jump up^ Politkovskaya, Anna (2007-07-08), Editor's Choice, New York Times, retrieved 2009-01-03, https://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/08/books/review/0708bb-hardcover.html?ref=review
Jump up^ Schaefer Munoz, Sara (2008-01-22), Free Food for Millionaires: When Everyone Else is a Big Spender, Wall Street Journal, retrieved 2009-01-03, https://blogs.wsj.com/juggle/2008/01/22/free-food-for-millionaires-when-everyone-else-is-a-big-spender/
Jump up^ http://page99test.blogspot.com/2007/07/min-jin-lees-free-food-for-millionaires.html
Jump up^ Largeheartedboy.com, Min Jin Lee – Free Food for Millionaires, http://www.largeheartedboy.com/blog/archive/2007/06/book_notes_min.html
Jump up^ Stephanie Cross, Daily Mail, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/books/article-4819830/LITERARY-FICTION.html
Jump up^ James Kidd, Book review: Min Jin Lee’s Free Food for Millionaires, a modern-day Middlemarch but more fun, gets deserved re-release, South China Morning Post, http://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/2107596/book-review-free-food-millionaires-decade-re-release-offers-reveal
Jump up^ Aw, Tash (15 March 2017). "Pachinko by Min Jin Lee review – rich story of the immigrant experience". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2 June 2017.
Jump up^ Zimmerman, Jean (7 February 2017). "Culture Clash, Survival And Hope In 'Pachinko'". National Public Radio (NPR). Archived from the original on 5 October 2017.
Jump up^ Lee, Krys (2 February 2017). "Home but Not Home: Four Generations of an Ethnic Korean Family in Japan". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 4 October 2017.
Jump up^ Craven, Peter (4 August 2017). "Pachinko review: Min Jin Lee's saga of Koreans in Japan is hard to put down". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 5 October 2017.
Jump up^ Boyne, John (5 August 2017). "Pachinko review: a masterpiece of empathy, integrity and family loyalty". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 11 August 2017.
Jump up^ "An absorbing saga of 20th-century Korean experience, seen through the fate of four generations". Kirkus Reviews. Archived from the original on 5 October 2017.
Jump up^ Ledgerwood, Angela (7 September 2017). "The Best Books of 2017 (So Far)". Esquire. Archived from the original on 3 October 2017.
Jump up^ Morgan, Adam (28 June 2017). "The Best Fiction Books of 2017 So Far". Chicago Review of Books. Archived from the original on 7 September 2017.
Jump up^ "Best Books of the Year So Far: Literature & Fiction". Amazon.com. 5 October 2017. Archived from the original on 5 October 2017.
Jump up^ Ciabattari, Jane (16 December 2016). "Ten books to read in 2017". BBC News. Archived from the original on 15 January 2017.
Jump up^ Aw, Tash (9 July 2017). "Best holiday reads 2017, picked by writers – part two". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 14 July 2017.
Jump up^ Nicolas, Sarah. "Best Books of 2017 (So Far)". Book Riot. Archived from the original on 14 July 2017.
Jump up^ Haupt, Angela (31 August 2017). "8 authors coming to the National Book Festival tell us the best thing they read this year". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 5 October 2017.
^ Jump up to:a b "2017 National Book Award finalists revealed". CBS News. October 4, 2017. Retrieved 2017-10-04.
Jump up^ Min Jin Lee, Home by Toni Morrison, Times of London, http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/books/fiction/article3386800.ece
Jump up^ Min Jin Lee, March Was Made of Yarn: edited by David Karashima and Elmer Luke, Times of London, http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/books/non-fiction/article3344401.ece
Jump up^ Min Jin Lee, Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick, Times of London, http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/books/fiction/article3053266.ece
Jump up^ Min Jin Lee, Wonder Woman: Love and Murder by Jodi Picoult, Times of London, http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/fiction/article3210539.ece
Jump up^ Min Jin Lee, Low Tide, https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/magazine/japan-tsunami-survivors.html?_r=0
Jump up^ Min Jin Lee, Up Front: After the Earthquake, Vogue, http://www.vogue.com/culture/article/upfront-japan/#1
Jump up^ Min Jin lee, Reading the World, http://minjinlee.com/images/uploads/Journal.pdf
Jump up^ Min Jin Lee, Why Star Chefs Revere Seiji Yamamoto, http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/why-star-chefs-revere-seiji-yamamoto
Jump up^ Min Jin Lee, Barnes & Noble Review, Sex, Debt, and Revenge: Balzac’s Cousin Bette, http://www.barnesandnoble.com/bn-review/note.asp?note=16288150
Jump up^ Min Jin Lee, My Other Village: Middlemarch by George Eliot (excerpt)http://minjinlee.com/writing/archive/my_other_village_middlemarch_by_george_eliot
Jump up^ Min Jin Lee, Pay Yourself First, Moleskinerie, http://www.moleskinerie.com/2007/06/guest_essay_pay.html
Jump up^ Min Jin Lee, Biblical Illiteracy or Reading the Bestseller, http://abcnews.go.com/International/Story?id=3289585&page=1
Jump up^ Min Jin Lee, About the Author, http://www.minjinlee.com/author/about_min/
Jump up^ Hachette Book Group USA, Author: Min Jin Lee, http://narrativemagazine.com/405/min.htm
External links[edit]
Min Jin Lee: Official homepage
Author Min Jin Lee: 'Free Food For Millionaires' at NPR
On-Point Radio with Tom Ashbrook: Min Jin Lee (Broadcast)
Min Jin Lee's Largehearted Boy Book Notes essay for Free Food for Millionaires
Motherland (full text), from The Missouri Review