Chang-rae Lee Biography : Chang-rae Lee was born in Seoul, South Korea and emigrated to the US in 1968, aged two. He grew up in the New York City area and began his university education at Yale, before moving on to the University of Oregon, where he gained his MFA. His first novel, "Native Speaker" won the PEN/Hemingway Award, the American Book Award and the ALA Book of the Year Award.
"A Gesture Life" grew out of four years work. It originally focused on the experience of a Korean comfort woman, and was told from her perspective. Chang-rae Lee went to Korea to interview surviving comfort women. He currently directs the MFA program in creative writing at the Hunter College of City University, in New York. His 2004 novel Aloft features an isolated suburbanite forced to deal with his world.
Dates: 1965-
Nationality: Korean
Recent Work: Aloft, 2004
