Sep 29, 2026 · 29 min
Min Jin Lee turns immigrant memory into social fiction
Min Jin Lee on “American Hagwon,” Her First Novel After the Phenomenon of “Pachinko”
Lee’s long path from immigrant child and corporate lawyer to novelist illuminates how ambitious fiction makes ordinary lives politically visible.
- 1Lee spent twelve years completing Free Food for Millionaires after leaving corporate law and writing two unsuccessful novels.
- 2American Hagwon connects education, migration, changing borders, personal memory, and artificial intelligence through the Korean diaspora.
- 3Lee treats research, faith, advocacy, and dramatic conflict as tools for writing expansive novels about people history often overlooks.
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Lee recounts the childhood incident in which a teacher struck her and later sought money from her mother, a memory that informed American Hagwon.
The brief
Min Jin Lee traces her route from Korea to Queens, where learning English and feeling out of place shaped her attention to immigrant lives and the gap between imagined and actual America.
After leaving corporate law, Lee wrote two unsuccessful novels before spending twelve years on Free Food for Millionaires, establishing the deliberate pace behind her fiction.
Her new novel, American Hagwon, uses the Korean private learning center as a lens on education, migration, changing borders, and the pressures of relentless striving.
A childhood memory of a teacher striking Lee, then asking her mother for money, becomes a route into her larger belief that history must make ordinary people visible.
Lee discusses advocacy, artificial intelligence, faith, and the challenge of aging while planning Marshall Plan, the final volume of her diaspora quartet, alongside a memoir.
Books & mentions
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American Hagwon
Lee’s forthcoming novel develops the episode’s concerns with education, migration, and social pressure.
Pachinko
The acclaimed novel provides the fullest route into Lee’s sustained exploration of diaspora and family history.
Free Food for Millionaires
Lee’s debut reveals the long-form social fiction she spent twelve years developing.