MPR’s Mike Maus interviews Minnesotan author Marie Lee on her young adult novel If It Hadn’t Been for Yoon Jun. Following a reading segment, Lee discusses the struggles of integrating her Korean and American identities and of feeling different than most other adolescents in her youth.
Marie (Myung-Ok) Lee is a Korean-American writer who was born and raised in Minnesota. She has published several young adult novels, including Finding My Voice, Saying Goodbye, and If It Hadn’t Been for Yoon Jun. She has written essays that have been published in The Atlantic, The New York Times, and Slate, among others. Ms. Lee is a founder of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop.