What role does storytelling play in the cultivation of knowledge?
As Emory’s 2026 Richard Ellmann Lecturer in Modern Literature, Min Jin Lee will consider the theme of wisdom in an unpredictable world over three evenings of lectures and conversation, set for March 1-3 at the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts.
Lee’s novel “Pachinko” was a New York Times bestseller and National Book Award finalist that was adapted into a streaming television series.
As an Ellmann Lecturer, Lee joins an exalted literary tradition nearly four decades strong. Its collective includes Seamus Heaney, Denis Donoghue, Helen Vendler, Henry Louis Gates Jr., A.S. Byatt, David Lodge, Salman Rushdie, Mario Vargas Llosa, Umberto Eco, Margaret Atwood, Paul Simon, Colm Tóibín, Claudia Rankine, Natasha Trethewey and Fintan O’Toole.
Emeritus Professor Ron Schuchard established the series in 1987 in honor of Richard Ellmann, the celebrated biographer of W.B. Yeats, James Joyce and Oscar Wilde. Ellmann served as the university’s first Robert W. Woodruff Professor from 1980-87.
To this pantheon, Lee brings an “uncommon moral and imaginative force,” says Carla Freeman, director of Emory’s Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry, which houses the lectures. Freeman is also the Goodrich C. White Professor of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies.
“One of the many aspects that I find absolutely stunning about Min Jin Lee’s novels is her capacity to center the thought and emotional register of an individual and family within the currents of history writ large,” Freeman says.
Lee’s novels feature characters seeking to build new lives as part of the Korean diaspora.
Tayari Jones, Charles Howard Candler Professor of English and Creative Writing at Emory, calls Lee “a true artist and consummate intellectual” who “excavates the past while interrogating contemporary life with rigor and compassion.” Jones will join Lee in conversation on the third night of the Ellmanns.
While preparing, Lee read every speech written by past Ellmann Lecturers, notes Freeman.
“Here’s a chance to witness a great American writer interrogate this theme of wisdom,” Freeman says. “She’s wanting to ask, ‘What is an education? How do we derive meaning from what we learn? How do novels invite us to imagine other worlds and other ways of being in the world?’”
Lee’s forthcoming novel, “American Hagwon,” set to publish in fall 2026, explores Korean for-profit tutoring centers, which are sometimes called “cram schools.”
The Ellmann Lectures offer a uniquely immersive learning experience — three days in which we are invited into the creative process and and intellectual life of a leading writer of our time, says Freeman.
“Building upon on the solitary act of reading and the structure of classroom discussions, being together in this sustained fashion transports us all collectively,” she says. “That’s the magic of the Ellmanns.”
This exchange of knowledge will continue when Lee visits with the Fox Center’s fellows to discuss their work. This year’s cohort is pursuing research across diverse humanistic disciplines connected to the theme of “Life/Story.” Lee will also meet with undergraduate students for a special Q&A following her second lecture.
As a speaker, Lee “makes you want to pull up a chair and listen all day,” says Geraldine Higgins, director of the Ellmann Lectures and associate professor of English.
“I remember hearing her in conversation with Dua Lipa on her ‘Book Club’ podcast and I immediately wanted our students to have the opportunity to spend three days in her company,” Higgins says. “We can’t wait!”
In the following Q&A, Lee discusses writing as a form of research, what makes the Ellmann Lectures unique and the place of immigrant stories in American literature. She also shares advice for aspiring writers.
How does writing books help you learn about the world?
For me, I start any work of fiction with questions, and the questions are so essential to me that I spend the time required exploring them. After I sort through my inquiry, I try to organize the narrative behind the questions and construct my answers in the form of a story. If I do my work well, then the reader and I are able to share this very specific and personal narrative, which should provide both edification and pleasure for that specific, individual reader.
Tell us about your enduring interest in writing about relationships among generations of immigrant families.
I feel certain that each person is, at the minimum, curious about intergenerational relationships because, though not all of us are parents, each of us is a daughter or son. The bonds between a child and a parent and, of course, the lives lived by each are intrinsic to our formation and growth. The identity of migrants and immigrants is a dynamic one and, within its dynamism of how one becomes and remains American, is a worthwhile story. In a way, movement — across space and time — writes a person’s identity.
What are you looking forward to about your conversation with Tayari Jones on the third night of your visit?
I love Tayari Jones’s writing. Like all great writers, she understands how to fuse the intellectual, emotional, historical and political aspects of narrative into an elegant whole. It is a privilege to be in conversation with such an exquisite fiction writer.
What do you think makes the Ellmann Lectures unique?
I think those of us who care about literature understand its significant power. The opportunity to share my thoughts about what literature does and what it can do is a tremendous honor. The Ellmann Lectures allow me to think through and refine ideas about literature in three distinct ways, and I am grateful to have this chance to be a visiting member of the Emory community.
What message would you like to share with the next generation of writers?
If there is only one message I’d impart to the next generation of writers, I might share Henry James’s adage: “Be someone on whom nothing is lost.” Our whole attention is perhaps our most valuable resource and, for a writer, I cannot imagine anything more important.
2026 Ellmann Lectures featuring Min Jin Lee, March 1-3
Schwartz Center for Performing Arts
All lectures require free tickets and are open to the public.
Sunday, March 1, 4 p.m.
“The Education of a Writer”
Monday, March 2, 6:30 p.m.
“Writing American”
Tuesday, March 3, 6:30 p.m.
“Writers and the World:” Creativity Conversation with Min Jin Lee and Tayari Jones