Lisa Lee

I hope to see you at one of my events! I can’t wait to connect with old friends and make new ones. More details on individual events will be posted, or hop over to my website (which I’ll update soon I swear.) #AmericanHan

I’m over the moon about this review by the luminous Joumana Khatib at NYT Books: “The Debut Novel I’m Crazy About” 🥰🥰🥰 /dynamic/render?isViewInBrowser=true&productCode=BK&uri=nyt%3A%2F%2Fnewsletter%2F983dc748-5335-5f84-98b8-598fc28ab3b8 #AmericanHan @nytbooks @jkhats @algonquinbooks @littlebrown

So grateful to Ron Charles, formerly of the Washington Post, for this very thoughtful review of AMERICAN HAN. I couldn’t ask for a better reader. Since WaPo unceremoniously axed all their book coverage, @ronacharles has moved to Substack. You should all subscribe to his newsletter. Link to review: /p/what-success-costs?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true #AmericanHan

[LA] #losangeles KCCLA and the National Museum of Korean Literature are hosting the Korean literature lecture series <K-Culture: Explore More, Enjoy More> A Window into Korean Culture: Focus on Korean Literature. Discover the roots of today’s global Korean Culture (K-Culture) through the powerful lens of Korean literature. This engaging lecture traces how stories—from traditional classics to modern hits like K-dramas and BTS—reflect Korea’s history, identity, and emotional depth. ✔️Session 1: 6:30pm, Thursday, May 21, 2026 — The Origins of K-Culture through the Lens of Korean Literary Tradition (90 minutes) ✔️Session 2: 6:30 pm, Friday, May 22, 2026 — Contemporary Korean Literature: Diversity and the Korean Wave (60 minutes) & Diaspora Authors Panel (60 minutes) 📍Venue: Ari Hall, KCCLA (5505 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90036) ❤️Benefits: Certificate of Completion issued by the Korean Cultural Center Los Angeles and the King Sejong Institute Center, USA, along with Korean cultural gifts (souvenirs) * Free RSVP at our website (link in bio) - Rosa Kwon Easton is an Anaphora Writing Residency Fellow, and her work has been published in CRAFT Literary, Electric Literature, Writer’s Digest, and elsewhere. A graduate of Smith College, Columbia University, and Boston College Law School, she resides with her husband and Maltipoo in sunny Southern California. White Mulberry has been translated into multiple languages, and her sequel, Red Seal, is due out in October 2026. She can be found at rosakwoneaston.com and on Instagram @rosakwoneaston . - Lisa Lee has received additional fellowships and awards from Kundiman, Millay Arts, Hedgebrook, the Rona Jaffe Foundation, Tin House, Jentel Artist Residency, the Korea Foundation, and others. Her work has appeared in Ploughshares, VIDA, North American Review, Sycamore Review, Gulf Coast, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from the University of Houston and a PhD in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Southern California. She lives in Los Angeles. @lisaleehello #kccla #literature #kculture #touringkarts

📸 Scenes from our April First Novel Friday with @yeah_okday , @lisaleehello , @__giadina , and the evening’s moderator @jetvgc . Swipe for pics—and be sure to purchase The Oldest Bitch Alive (@astrahousebooks ), American Han (@algonquinbooks ), and Ruins, Child (@ndpublishing ) at bookstore.centerforfiction.org. #bookevents #firstnovelfriday #brooklyn #books #reading

One week from today! Join us in welcoming Lisa Lee for the release of her debut novel, AMERICAN HAN. Lee will be joined by If I Survive You author Jonathan Escoffery. In-person here in the Inner Sunset or online. Free to attend, please RSVP and find more details at the link in our bio or at greenapplebooks.com/events. See you then! 🔴About American Han🔴 “Tone perfect. To say that this book is smart is an understatement…This is a beautiful, important novel that will leave a mark.”—Percival Everett, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of James Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1980s, Jane Kim and her brother, Kevin, dutifully embodied the model minority myth as their parents demanded: both stellar tennis players and academically gifted, they worked hard to make their parents proud. Jane went on to law school. Kevin came close to becoming a professional tennis player. But where they started is nowhere near where they have ended up: Jane has stopped going to her law school classes, and Kevin, now a policeman, has become increasingly distant. Their parents, each on their own path toward the elusive American Dream (their mother hell-bent on having the perfect house and the perfect family, their father obsessed with working his way up from one successful business to the next), don’t want to see the family unraveling. When Kevin goes missing, no one recognizes his absence as the warning sign it is until it erupts, forcing them all to come to terms with their past and present selves in a country that isn’t all it promised it would be. . . . . . . [ID slide 1: A hand holds Lisa Lee’s American Han in front of a bush of red flowers. The cover if Lee’s novel is turquoise with a piece of cabbage resembling a flame being picked up by chopsticks. ID slide 2: Graphic reads “Lisa Lee, American Han, joined by Jonathan Escoffery, Thursday, April 23. 7pm. 1231 9th Ave (Inner Sunset). Free, Please RSVP at the link in bio. Green Apple Books.” The graphic features Lee and Escoffery’s author photos and the cover of Lee’s novel]

2026 MCWC WORKSHOP SPOTLIGHT: Multi-Genre Prose Workshop with Lisa Lee This workshop is about finding the heart of your writing—the stories, images, and experiences that are most compelling to you—because this is what will keep you coming back to the work amid all the distractions that compose a full life. For writers working in fiction and nonfiction who may not have a lot of time to commit to a writing practice, for all levels, including advanced writers and those without an extensive background in writing. Learn more and register at /. Also, read our exclusive interview with Lisa Lee, author of the novel AMERICAN HAN, now on MCWC's blog: /blog/lisalee

Hello LA! I’ll be back on campus at USC for the @latimesfob this weekend and I’d love to see you! I’ll be in convo with @bruceholsingerauthor @michellehuneven @susan.straight , moderated by @sophiakercher 🥰🥰🥰 Note: tickets are required for the panel but I’ll be signing books afterwards! ❤️ More info here: latimes.com/fob #bookfest #AmericanHan #algonquinbooks #littlebrown #latfob

I would love to see you in Pasadena @vromansbookstore this Thursday 4/16 @ 7pm. I’ll be in convo with my longtime friend Muriel Leung @murmurshewrote , an award-winning poet and fiction writer whose beautiful novel “How To Fall in Love in a Time of Unnameable Disaster” won a 2025 Lambda Award. Vroman’s is the oldest & largest indie bookstore in SoCal. A.C. Vroman donated books to Japanese American internees during WWII, and when he died in 1916, he bequeathed the store to his longtime employees. ❤️❤️❤️ Vroman’s Bookstore 695 E Colorado Blvd Pasadena, CA 91101 More info here: /event/2026-04-16/lisa-lee #AmericanHan #algonquinbooks #littlebrown #vromansbookstore #debutnovel

We are kicking of AAPI Heritage Month in May with a special event and guest authors visiting us throughout the month. Join us on Saturday, May 9th for a really special evening celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. It’s one we’ve been dreaming up for a while, and we can’t wait to share it with you. We’ll start with a beautiful, thoughtful panel conversation with Naomi Hirahara (Crown City), Lisa Lee (American Han), and M Lin (The Memory Museum), who will be talking about their latest novels and debuts, and what it means to write AAPI stories, to center AAPI voices, characters, and lived experiences on the page. Afterward, we’ll ease into the evening together with AAPI pop-ups, a table full of AAPI books, and a delicious catering from our good friends at @bodegapark and @ohanasuperette and coffee & mocktails by @kapecorazon . Good food, good drinks, good company, great community and stories, the kind of space where you want to linger. As the sun sets, we’ll gather for something we’re especially excited about, an advance outdoor movie screening of FORGE, a new indie art heist film by Jing Ai Ng, starring Kelly Marie Tran, Andie Ju, and Brandon Soo Hoo. Jing will be there with us before the film for a short Q&A, joined by members of the cast, which makes it all feel even more intimate and special. It’s going to be one of those nights, full of stories, connection, pride, and celebration. We really, really hope you can be there with us. 📚🎥🍿❤️ LINK IN BIO to reserve a spot to this special evening.

In this Episode 334 clip, @lisaleehello expands on the significance of "Han" among Koreans and Korean-Americans. Her book is a masterclass in that so much of the book's tension is in what is not being said, not being done, rather than what's on the surface, and even the talkative characters carry veiled meanings in their words. In the same way, "Han" in its macro and micro permutations acts almost like another character, always within earshot. Buy her raucous, resonant American Han from @algonquinbooks

In this episode of What Are You Reading?, host Jason Blitman sits down with Lisa Lee to talk about the books that shaped and sustained her through the decade-long journey to her debut novel, American Han. Lisa Lee is the recipient of the Marianne Russo Emerging Writer Award from the Key West Literary Seminar, an Emerging Writer Fellowship from the Center for Fiction, and a Pushcart Prize. She has received other fellowships and awards from Kundiman, Millay Arts, Hedgebrook, the Rona Jaffe Foundation, Tin House, Jentel Artist Residency, and the Korea Foundation. Her work has appeared in Ploughshares, VIDA, North American Review, Sycamore Review, Gulf Coast, and elsewhere. Lee holds an MFA from the University of Houston and a PhD in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Southern California. She lives in Los Angeles. . . . #gaysreading #bookstagram #newbook