Marie G. Lee

Through the National Book Foundation's Settlement House Author Residency program, author Marie Lee met with participants at Forest Hills Community House in Queens, New York from December 6 to December 8, 2004. This unique program is designed to give readers of all ages the opportunity to learn firsthand the power of reading and the written word.

Marie G. Lee is a second-generation Korean American who was born and raised in Hibbing, a small town in Minnesota and the same town where Bob Dylan grew up. She is the daughter of William and Grace Lee, who immigrated to the United States in 1953.

She graduated from Brown University in 1986 and worked for an economics research firm before becoming a free-lance writer. In 1992, Marie G. Lee published her first novel, Finding My Voice, for young adults. It's the story of Ellen Sung's senior year as the only Asian in a small Minnesota high school. The book was praised by critics for its "depth and candor" and received several honors including the Best Book Award from the Friends of American Writers and a Best Book for Reluctant Readers citation from the American Library Association.

Her other books include Saying Goodbye, a sequel to Finding My Voice, and the story of Ellen Sung's continued search for her Korean American identity at Harvard; Necessary Roughness, the story of a Korean American boy who wants to play football; If It Hadn't Been for Yoon Jun, the story of a Korean adoptee who confronts her identity when she meets a school mate who is a Korean immigrant; and the Night of the Chupacabras, a mystery about Mexican vampires. Her latest book, Somebody's Daughter: a Novel, scheduled to be published in February 2005, is about 19 year-old Sarah Thorson, who was adopted from Korea and discovers the truth about the mysterious circumstances of her birth.

Ms. Lee's work has appeared in The New York Times, The Kenyon Review, and several anthologies. She has appeared on PBS's "Asian American" and is a founder of the Asian American Writer's Workshop, located in New York City. She was a Fulbright Scholar to Korea in creative writing and has received many honors for her work.

Ms. Lee's writings draw on her experiences of growing up as a Korean American, but she hopes that non-Asian readers will also read her work. She believes that multicultural literature, like all other literature, has the capacity to illuminate, inspire, and educate.

The National Book Foundation Settlement House Author Residency program is made possible through leadership funding from the Theodore H. Barth Foundation, R. R. Donnelley Foundation, and National Endowment for the Arts, with additional support from the New York State Council on the Arts, Stuart Applebaum, Martin and Deborah Bernstein, Martin Shafer and Carol Fuchs, Jacquelyn Mitchard, Arthur Thornhill, Martha McPhee, Edward Ball, Bernhardt Fudyma, Alice McDermott, Ron Chernow, Jonathan Franzen, Bruce Weigl, Lorie Slutsky, Leyla Torres, and Fannie Safier.