Min Jin Lee

Min Jin Lee is a Korean-American novelist and essayist whose work explores migration, identity, class and the experiences of the Korean diaspora. Born in Seoul, she moved with her family to New York City as a child and grew up in Queens. She studied history at Yale University and law at Georgetown University before leaving legal practice to pursue writing. Her fiction combines extensive historical and social research with intimate portrayals of families negotiating economic pressure, cultural expectations and displacement.

Her debut novel, Free Food for Millionaires, follows a young Korean-American woman navigating family obligations and social ambition in New York. Lee achieved international recognition with Pachinko, a multigenerational novel about a Korean family living in Japan during the twentieth century; it became a bestseller, was a finalist for the National Book Award and was adapted for television. Her third novel, American Hagwon, examines education, achievement and migration through a Korean family living across Seoul, Sydney and Southern California, and is scheduled for publication in September 2026.