Yoon Ha Lee
#289,296 Most Popular
About
American science fiction and fantasy writer known for his Machineries of Empire space opera novels and his short fiction. He has 7,000 followers on Twitter.
Before Fame
His Korean American family lived in both Texas and South Korea, where he attended high school at Seoul Foreign School, an English-language international school. He went to college at Cornell University, majoring in mathematics. He earned a master's in secondary mathematics education at Stanford University. He has worked as an analyst for an energy market intelligence company, done web design, and taught mathematics.
Trivia
He originally wanted to be a composer. Then, in third grade, his teacher would change into a superhero costume, Story Man, and pretend to be a completely different person. As he explained in an interview on LocusMag.com: "I would say, 'This is not real,' and he would say, 'You're ruining the illusion.' He had us do creative writing. Before that, I knew that everyone obviously composed music, because I composed music (though I learned later that was not actually the case), but I didn't realize stories came from somewhere."
Family Life
He was born in Houston, Texas. He is a trans man and describes himself as queer. He lives in Louisiana with his husband and daughter.
Associated With
His debut novel Ninefox Gambit received the 2017 Locus Award for Best First Novel. Other winners of the Locus Award include Kim Stanley Robinson, Cory Doctorow, and Jonathan Lethem.
