Min Jin Lee Reads a Chapter From the Bible Every Day Before She Writes

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I first encountered Min Jin Lee’s work in the spring of 2017. I was in the midst of my first writing residency and a writer I was having breakfast with couldn’t stop raving about Lee’s recently published novel, Pachinko. Because I was on a tight budget, I decided to wait until returning home to purchase the book and read it. But over the next two months, the chorus of praise grew, making it nearly impossible to ignore. By the time my residency was over, I raced back home and then, almost immediately, to Strand Books. I dived headfirst into that novel, and it did not disappoint.

I fell madly in love with Lee’s writing and characters. Though I realized I would likely have to wait some years before Lee’s next novel, I knew the wait would be worth it.

Ahead of the release of her latest, American Hagwon, a mesmerizing contemporary novel, I had the privilege of chatting with her and getting to know the author behind the epics.

— Denne Michele Norris
Executive Director and Publisher

1. Describe your publication week in a six-word story.

Min Jin Lee: I’ve been cooking for 10 years.

2. What book should everyone read growing up?

MJL: The Velveteen Rabbit by Marjorie Williams.

EL: That’s so funny because this one time when I was a teenager, I was giving my Mom some attitude about something, and she rolled her eyes and made a joke about how she should’ve just done whatever she wanted back when I was a toddler instead of what she actually did, which was to read The Velveteen Rabbit to me for the 15,000th time. MJL: Is your mom still alive? EL: No, she passed away last year. MJL: So that answer was an homage to her. EL: It was. And everyone really should read that book.

3. Write alone or in community?

MJL: I write alone. I don’t know how to do it with other people around. I’m like a really stupid bird. I’ll be like, “Oh, I really like your glasses! I really like your nail tips.” I get so distracted by the visual. You’ve got to lock me up. I’ve got to be by myself, and then finally I’ll put out something.

4. How do you start from scratch?

MJL: I start with a question.

5. 3 presses you’ll read anything from:

MJL: Weatherhead East Asian Institute. New York Review of Books. Europa Editions.

6. If you were a novel what novel would you be?

MJL: This is a really hard one, but Middlemarch. I love Middlemarch.

EL: I love Middlemarch, too. MJL: I want to be a big novel.

7. Describe your ideal writing day.

MJL: I wake up at nine. I have coffee. I chat with my husband. I do my meditation. And then . . . You know Willa Cather used to do this thing where she would read one chapter of the Bible before she began her work. So I do the same thing Willa Cather did. I read a chapter from the Bible, and then I’ll start work. I’ll work for five to six hours. And then, in an ideal day, I’ll eat something. And then I’ll ride my exercise bike. And then I read.

EL: That’s a perfect day. MJL: I try not to bother people. That’s my entire point in life: Let’s not bother anybody.

8. What’s a piece of writing advice you never want to hear again?

MJL: Show don’t tell. I hate that.

9. What’s a piece of writing advice you think everyone needs to hear?

MJL: Keep a low overhead. Words to live by. And especially for writers. It’s really important. We have a very uneven life. Our imaginations can be extravagant.

10. Realism or surrealism?

MJL: Surrealism.

11. Favorite and least favorite film adaptation of a book:

MJL: Dangerous Liaisons. It’s an excellent adaptation. It’s an epistolary novel. For least favorite . . . Actually let’s focus on the one that I like.

12. Edit as you go or shitty first draft?

MJL: Shitty first draft. Shitty second draft. Shitty third draft. Shitty fourth draft. Just shitty drafts until it gets good.

EL: It’s a lot of shit. MJL: A lot of shit.

13. Best advice for pushing through writer’s block?

MJL: Sit there and tell yourself it doesn’t matter. Just sit there and say “It’s okay. It doesn’t matter.” Try it for half an hour. I try really hard to be nice to myself. I just say, “There there, there there.”

14. What’s your relationship to being edited?

MJL: I think if you have a smart editor, it’s one of the greatest gifts a person can get. That’s the way I look at it. I work with Reagan Arthur right now, in the US, and Kishani Widyaratna in the UK. Both geniuses. Also when I freelance, Deborah Treisman at The New Yorker. she’s amazing, just so smart. It feels lucky. By the time I get it to my editors, I’m on, like, my 15th draft. So I’m ready to hear it. I have my thoughts about what’s not working and I want to know if their thoughts are consistent with mine.

15. Write every day or write when inspired?

MJL: I write regularly, but it’s never about inspiration. I don’t believe in that. I believe motivation follows action.

16. What other art forms and literary genres inspire you?

MJL: I love visual art. I love music, but I really love visual art. So when I’m having a rough time, I go to a museum and I’ll sit in front of a painting, and I’ll say, “You understand me.” I literally am talking to nobody, but it doesn’t matter.

EL: The artists’ spirits are around us. MJL: As are the ancestors’. So we must be good!

17. The writer who made you want to write:

MJL: I think Toni Morrison made me want to write. James Baldwin made me want to write. Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck. I guess the older generation.

18. How do you know when you’ve reached the end?

MJL: I’ve answered my question.

19. Describe your writing space.

MJL: A clear desk. I really need a clear desk. I actually have three desks. I’m at my writing desk right now, but I also have a reading desk, which doesn’t have a computer, and an admin desk, because my brain can’t handle doing it all in one place. I also have a walking pad underneath my admin desk, which is also a standing desk. I can clock 6,000 to 10,000 steps doing that. There’s just so much admin! And I have two monitors, one for Scrivener, and another for a spreadsheet of characters and dates and things like that. This is my great luxury: three tables.

20. How do you keep your favorite writers close to you?

MJL: Well they’re all dead, so I do it by keeping their books.

21. What’s the last indie bookstore you went to?