Literary Birthday – 11 July – Min Jin Lee

Happy Birthday, Min Jin Lee, born on 11 July 1968.

Min Jin Lee Quotes

1. Living every day in the presence of those who refuse to acknowledge your humanity takes great courage.
2. I was told many times that my writing was either too Korean – or not Korean enough.
3. Patriotism is just an idea, so is capitalism or communism. But ideas can make men forget their own interests. And the guys in charge will exploit men who believe in ideas too much.
4. The 19th century social novel is my favourite genre so although it was enormously challenging for me, it made sense to try to write one.
5. I am fascinated by communities, small and large, and individuals in them. I am curious about how we individuals work within communities and without them so it felt very natural to me to pursue this old-school style of writing which allowed for questions, observations and experiments.
6. As a writer, I remain more interested in all the characters rather than one character.

Min Jin Lee is a Korean American writer. She is the author of the novels Free Food for Millionaires and Pachinko. Her fiction has been translated into over 35 languages. She is the recipient of fellowships in Fiction from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. She has received the NYFA Fellowship for Fiction, the Peden Prize from The Missouri Review for Best Story, and the Narrative Prize for New and Emerging Writers. As New York State Author Laureate 2025-2027, Lee received the Edith Wharton Citation of Merit. She is the 2024 recipient of The Fitzgerald Prize for Literary Excellence. Her latest novel is American Hagwon. Follow her on Instagram and Bluesky.

Source for image: Fffm&pachinkofan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Min_Jin_Lee_Headshot.jpg
And source for some of the quotes

by Amanda Patterson
Please click here for our Literary Birthday Calendar