3D mock up of the book cover for Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
In conversationUpcoming

The thirty year book: patience as technique

with Min Jin Lee, Novelist

Date
Wed, November 11, 2026
Time
local
Venue
Asia Society, New York, NY

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What happens in the room

Lee on interviews as primary sources, and what you owe the people who let you use their lives.

$25 · 220 seats

About Min Jin Lee

  • National Book Award finalist, 2017
  • New York Times 10 Best Books of 2017
  • Guggenheim Fellowship, 2018

Born in Seoul and raised in Queens, Lee trained as a lawyer before writing full time. She carried Pachinko for nearly thirty years, abandoning a completed draft in her forties after interviews in Tokyo convinced her the story belonged to the women of the family, not the men.

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Also with Min

3D mock up of the book cover for Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin LeeLive recordingUpcoming

Free Food for Millionaires · Warner Books, 2007

Thirty years of Pachinko: throwing out a finished novel

with Min Jin Lee, Novelist

National Book Award finalist, 2017

Date
Wed, May 13, 2026
Time
local time
Venue
Asia Society, New York, NY

Min Jin Lee on the draft she abandoned in her forties, and the Tokyo interviews that told her whose story it was.

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3D mock up of the book cover for American Hagwon by Min Jin LeeIn conversationUpcoming

American Hagwon · Grand Central, Forthcoming

The woman selling kimchi carries a century

with Min Jin Lee, Novelist

National Book Award finalist, 2017

Date
Wed, August 19, 2026
Time
local time
Venue
Yeonhui Hall, Seoul, KR

On over reporting, historical invisibility, and making a reader in Ohio grieve for a market stallholder in Osaka.

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