DMA Arts & Letters Live: Min Jin Lee

Min Jin Lee comes to the Dallas Museum of Art on Thursday, October 8, as part of the Arts & Letters Live series. She'll be presenting her novel American Hagwon, so if you've been following her work, this is the one to keep on your radar.

If the name doesn't ring a bell, you probably know Pachinko—the multi-generational saga that was a National Book Award finalist and made the New York Times' list of the 100 best books of the century. That's the one that really put her on the map. Before that, she wrote Free Food for Millionaires. Between those two, she's built a reputation for writing that looks closely at the Korean diaspora and the ways family, class, and national identity pull and push against each other. American Hagwon is the latest to come out of that.

Lee's career has picked up some heavy-hitting recognition along the way. She's currently the New York State Author Laureate, and she's held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. When she talks about her work, the focus usually lands on those same intersections—family, class, and the experience of the Korean diaspora—so that's likely where the conversation will go when she discusses American Hagwon.

Tickets are $50 to $55, and the event is at the Dallas Museum of Art, 1717 N Harwood St, Dallas, TX 75201. It's a Thursday night, so you can catch it on your way home from work or make a proper evening of it.