Min.Jin Lee author page

Min Jin Lee biography

Min Jin Lee is a Korean American novelist and essayist whose books include Free Food for Millionaires and Pachinko. She studied history at Yale College and law at Georgetown University, and practised law for two years before pursuing writing. She has also received fiction fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, Harvard Radcliffe Institute and New York Foundation for the Arts.

Her debut novel, Free Food for Millionaires, was first published in 2007 and follows Casey Han, the daughter of Korean immigrants, as she navigates work, family expectations and social class in New York. Her second novel, Pachinko, was published in 2017. Beginning in Korea and continuing through several generations of a Korean family in Japan, the novel was a finalist for the 2017 National Book Award for Fiction and runner-up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. In the UK, Pachinko and Free Food for Millionaires are published by Head of Zeus.

Lee has written essays and criticism for publications including The New York Times, The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The Guardian and The Times. She edited The Best American Short Stories 2023 and has been inducted into both the New York Foundation for the Arts Hall of Fame and the New York State Writers Hall of Fame. She is New York State Author Laureate for 2025 to 2027.

Her third novel, American Hagwon, follows the Koh family as their lives are reshaped by financial upheaval, migration and their expectations of education. It is scheduled for UK publication by 4th Estate, an imprint of HarperCollins, on 29 September 2026.