{"id":3981,"date":"2005-09-01T14:19:35","date_gmt":"2005-09-01T18:19:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bookdragon.si.edu\/?p=3981"},"modified":"2015-08-17T10:55:11","modified_gmt":"2015-08-17T14:55:11","slug":"somebodys-daughter-by-marie-myung-ok-lee-author-interview-in-the-bloomsbury-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/somebodys-daughter-by-marie-myung-ok-lee-author-interview-in-the-bloomsbury-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Somebody’s Daughter by Marie Myung-Ok Lee + Author Interview [in Bloomsbury Review]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Marie<\/a>Somebody’s Daughter
\nMarie Myung-Ok Lee Finds Her Voice<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ten Thousand Sorrows<\/a><\/em> by Elizabeth Kim, A Single Square Picture<\/em> by Katy Robinson<\/a>, and The Language of Blood<\/em> by Jane Jeong Trenka <\/a>are just some of the available memoirs with the Asian transracial adoptee experience as their focus. Now for the first time comes a work of fiction from a major publisher with a Korean adoptee protagonist. Somebody\u2019s Daughter<\/em>, which debuted last week, is also the first adult title for Marie Lee, already the lauded author of four young adult books, including the critically-acclaimed Finding My Voice<\/a><\/em> and its sequel\u00a0Saying Goodbye<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

What began as a year in Korea as a Fulbright fellow \u2013 \u201cI sadly had to leave my husband behind practically at the altar,\u201d Lee laughs \u2013 during which she recorded the oral histories of birthmothers who released their children to adoption, morphed into the lyrical Daughter<\/em>. \u201cNow I can\u2019t look away from the fact that the adoptive family\u2019s joy invariably involves the birthmother\u2019s loss,\u201d says Lee after her Korean experience.<\/p>\n

Though Lee herself is not adopted, the novel intertwines the voices of Sarah Thorson, a Midwest adoptee who drops of out of the University of Minnesota to spend a summer studying in Korea, and Kyung-sook, her Korean birthmother who lives in a remote village selling salted shrimp. Both are conflicted, searching, lonely souls who long to find one another, but because of impossible circumstances are fated to stay apart. Lyrical, haunting, tragic yet hopeful, Daughter<\/em> is a most promising adult debut.<\/p>\n

The Bloomsbury Review<\/em><\/strong>: You\u2019ve been highly successful in the young adult market. What prompted you to try adult fiction?
\nMarie Myung-Ok Lee<\/strong>: I don\u2019t consider myself a \u2018genre\u2019 writer except for the genre of fiction. I just write whatever interests me, about whatever character\u2019s voice captures my attention at any given time. That said, I think the whole \u2018young adult\u2019 appellation can be useful for marketing age-appropriateness, but it can also be quite limiting in that it sets up certain expectations, standards, and formulas. I enjoyed writing Somebody\u2019s Daughter<\/em> more or less already knowing it was going to be an adult book because for once I could write totally freely, without worries about language of subject matter (i.e.<\/em> s-e-x).<\/p>\n

Ironically, now that the book is done, authorities on YA literature, like the esteemed Michael Cart, think the book is perfect for the mature YA reader, so that\u2019s kind of a comfortable place for me to be \u2013 in that interstitial place between young adult and adult. Similarly, it\u2019s being taught in a course at Brown called \u2018Sex, Race, and Love: The Interracial Family,\u2019 and the young adults in the class seem to be relating to the book quite well. …[click here for more<\/a>]\n

Author interview<\/strong>: “Somebody\u2019s Daughter: Marie Myung-Ok Lee Finds Her Voice,” The Bloomsbury Review<\/em>, September\/October 2005<\/a><\/p>\n

Readers<\/strong>: Young Adult, Adult<\/p>\n

Published<\/strong>: 2005<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"Sombody'sSomebody’s Daughter
\nMarie Myung-Ok Lee Finds Her Voice<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ten Thousand Sorrows<\/a><\/em> by Elizabeth Kim, A Single Square Picture<\/em> by Katy Robinson<\/a>, and The Language of Blood<\/em> by Jane Jeong Trenka <\/a>are just some of the available memoirs with the Asian transracial adoptee experience as their focus. Now for the first time comes a work of fiction from a major publisher with a Korean adoptee protagonist. Somebody\u2019s Daughter<\/em>, which debuted last week, is also the first adult title for Marie Lee, already the lauded author of four young adult books, including the critically-acclaimed Finding My Voice<\/a><\/em> and its sequel Saying Goodbye<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

What began as a year in Korea as a Fulbright fellow \u2013 \u201cI sadly had to leave my husband behind practically at the altar,\u201d Lee laughs \u2013 during which she recorded the oral histories of birthmothers who released their children to adoption, morphed into the lyrical Daughter<\/em>. \u201cNow I can\u2019t look away from the fact that the adoptive family\u2019s joy invariably involves the birthmother\u2019s loss,\u201d says Lee after her Korean experience.<\/p>\n

Though Lee herself is not adopted, the novel intertwines the voices of Sarah Thorson, a Midwest adoptee who drops of out of the University of Minnesota to spend a summer studying in Korea, and Kyung-sook, her Korean birthmother who lives in a remote village selling salted shrimp. Both are conflicted, searching, lonely souls who long to find one another, but because of impossible circumstances are fated to stay apart. Lyrical, haunting, tragic yet hopeful, Daughter<\/em> is a most promising adult debut.<\/p>\n

The Bloomsbury Review<\/em><\/strong>: You\u2019ve been highly successful in the young adult market. What prompted you to try adult fiction?
\nMarie Myung-Ok Lee<\/strong>: I don\u2019t consider myself a \u2018genre\u2019 writer except for the genre of fiction. I just write whatever interests me, about whatever character\u2019s voice captures my attention at any given time. That said, I think the whole \u2018young adult\u2019 appellation can be useful for marketing age-appropriateness, but it can also be quite limiting in that it sets up certain expectations, standards, and formulas. I enjoyed writing Somebody\u2019s Daughter<\/em> more or less already knowing it was going to be an adult book because for once I could write totally freely, without worries about language of subject matter (i.e.<\/em> s-e-x).<\/p>\n

Ironically, now that the book is done, authorities on YA literature, like the esteemed Michael Cart, think the book is perfect for the mature YA reader, so that\u2019s kind of a comfortable place for me to be \u2013 in that interstitial place between young adult and adult. Similarly, it\u2019s being taught in a course at Brown called \u2018Sex, Race, and Love: The Interracial Family,\u2019 and the young adults in the class seem to be relating to the book quite well. …[click here for more<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Author interview<\/strong>: “Somebody\u2019s Daughter: Marie Myung-Ok Lee Finds Her Voice,” The Bloomsbury Review<\/em>, September\/October 2005<\/a><\/p>\n

Readers<\/strong>: Young Adult, Adult<\/p>\n

Published<\/strong>: 2005<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29266,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6,38,6535,31],"tags":[82,1968,6608,58,59,10,51,3601,129,39,3602],"class_list":["post-3981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-fiction","category-korean-american","category-repost","category-young-adult-readers","tag-adoption","tag-bloomsbury-review","tag-bookdragon","tag-coming-of-age","tag-cultural-exploration","tag-family","tag-identity","tag-marie-g-myung-ok-lee","tag-mother-daughter-relationship","tag-parent-child-relationship","tag-somebodys-daughter"],"yoast_head":"\nSomebody's Daughter by Marie Myung-Ok Lee + Author Interview [in Bloomsbury Review] - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/somebodys-daughter-by-marie-myung-ok-lee-author-interview-in-the-bloomsbury-review\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Somebody's Daughter by Marie Myung-Ok Lee + Author Interview [in Bloomsbury Review] - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Somebody's Daughter Marie Myung-Ok Lee Finds Her Voice Ten Thousand Sorrows by Elizabeth Kim, A Single Square Picture by Katy Robinson, and The Language of Blood by Jane Jeong Trenka are just some of the available memoirs with the Asian transracial adoptee experience as their focus. Now for the first time comes a work of fiction from a major publisher with a Korean adoptee protagonist. Somebody\u2019s Daughter, which debuted last week, is also the first adult title for Marie Lee, already the lauded author of four young adult books, including the critically-acclaimed Finding My Voice and its sequel Saying Goodbye. What began as a year in Korea as a Fulbright fellow \u2013 \u201cI sadly had to leave my husband behind practically at the altar,\u201d Lee laughs \u2013 during which she recorded the oral histories of birthmothers who released their children to adoption, morphed into the lyrical Daughter. \u201cNow I can\u2019t look away from the fact that the adoptive family\u2019s joy invariably involves the birthmother\u2019s loss,\u201d says Lee after her Korean experience. Though Lee herself is not adopted, the novel intertwines the voices of Sarah Thorson, a Midwest adoptee who drops of out of the University of Minnesota to spend a summer studying in Korea, and Kyung-sook, her Korean birthmother who lives in a remote village selling salted shrimp. Both are conflicted, searching, lonely souls who long to find one another, but because of impossible circumstances are fated to stay apart. Lyrical, haunting, tragic yet hopeful, Daughter is a most promising adult debut. The Bloomsbury Review: You\u2019ve been highly successful in the young adult market. What prompted you to try adult fiction? Marie Myung-Ok Lee: I don\u2019t consider myself a \u2018genre\u2019 writer except for the genre of fiction. I just write whatever interests me, about whatever character\u2019s voice captures my attention at any given time. That said, I think the whole \u2018young adult\u2019 appellation can be useful for marketing age-appropriateness, but it can also be quite limiting in that it sets up certain expectations, standards, and formulas. I enjoyed writing Somebody\u2019s Daughter more or less already knowing it was going to be an adult book because for once I could write totally freely, without worries about language of subject matter (i.e. s-e-x). Ironically, now that the book is done, authorities on YA literature, like the esteemed Michael Cart, think the book is perfect for the mature YA reader, so that\u2019s kind of a comfortable place for me to be \u2013 in that interstitial place between young adult and adult. Similarly, it\u2019s being taught in a course at Brown called \u2018Sex, Race, and Love: The Interracial Family,\u2019 and the young adults in the class seem to be relating to the book quite well. ...[click here for more] Author interview: "Somebody\u2019s Daughter: Marie Myung-Ok Lee Finds Her Voice," The Bloomsbury Review, September\/October 2005 Readers: Young Adult, Adult Published: 2005\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/somebodys-daughter-by-marie-myung-ok-lee-author-interview-in-the-bloomsbury-review\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2005-09-01T18:19:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-08-17T14:55:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2005\/04\/Marie-Lee.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"416\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SmithsonianAPA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Somebody's Daughter by Marie Myung-Ok Lee + Author Interview [in Bloomsbury Review] - BookDragon","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/somebodys-daughter-by-marie-myung-ok-lee-author-interview-in-the-bloomsbury-review\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Somebody's Daughter by Marie Myung-Ok Lee + Author Interview [in Bloomsbury Review] - BookDragon","og_description":"Somebody's Daughter Marie Myung-Ok Lee Finds Her Voice Ten Thousand Sorrows by Elizabeth Kim, A Single Square Picture by Katy Robinson, and The Language of Blood by Jane Jeong Trenka are just some of the available memoirs with the Asian transracial adoptee experience as their focus. Now for the first time comes a work of fiction from a major publisher with a Korean adoptee protagonist. Somebody\u2019s Daughter, which debuted last week, is also the first adult title for Marie Lee, already the lauded author of four young adult books, including the critically-acclaimed Finding My Voice and its sequel Saying Goodbye. What began as a year in Korea as a Fulbright fellow \u2013 \u201cI sadly had to leave my husband behind practically at the altar,\u201d Lee laughs \u2013 during which she recorded the oral histories of birthmothers who released their children to adoption, morphed into the lyrical Daughter. \u201cNow I can\u2019t look away from the fact that the adoptive family\u2019s joy invariably involves the birthmother\u2019s loss,\u201d says Lee after her Korean experience. 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