Welcome to Dedicated with Doug Brunt. You have just gained access to an exclusive insider's look at the lives and works of some of your favorite authors and hear conversations with the world's greatest writers as they discuss their writing lifestyle, creative process, latest work, and behind the scenes revelations.

Welcome to Dedicated. i'm your host Doug brunt today we're talking with minjin lee she's the author of two novels free food

for millionaires and pachinko novels that are so powerful and good that even if she never

publishes another line she'll go down in history as one of the all-time greats.

Fortunately, she is at work on a third book.

Her writing process, which we'll talk about in a bit, is long and arduous, but that is her

commitment to excellence.

Min, it's great to be with you.

Welcome.

Oh, hey, Doug, it's so nice to be here.

Today, we are drinking unsweetened green tea, which we both have Etoen. Is that how you say it?

I think so. It's O'N, yeah. Okay. And over ice. For me, it's morning. So I'm going to go crazy and have it on ice.

Well, cheers. It's great to see you. Cheers. It's very strong, by the way. You're going to be really alert. Oh, this has a lot of caffeine. Good. It's got something, but it doesn't make your tummy hurts. That's good. That's funny. I went to college in the South where they had sweet tea, which is almost like a crazy syrup. It's actually delicious, but I kind of like this unsweetened a little better. Yeah, as you get older, you're like, you know, maybe I should cut down a little bit of sugar.

Yeah. syrup. It's actually delicious, but I kind of like this unsweetened a little better.

Yeah. As you get older, you're like, you know, maybe I should cut down a little bit of sugar.

Yeah. So you were born in Seoul Korea, and you came to the U.S. when you were around seven. And I read this really interesting story about your uncle, I think, named John, who sort of paved the way and sponsored your family

to come over. Can you tell us a bit about that story and how your family came to the U.S.?

Yeah, so my uncle John came to the U.S. right after the Korean War. And he studied in Missouri,

of all places, as a foreign student. And he wanted to be a

journalist and a writer, and he majored in history. Later on, it didn't work out because it costs a lot

of money to continue his education. So he ended up coming to New York. He went to the library,

and he looked up classified to figure out. He went to the library and he looked

...