Writer Chang-rae Lee was featured at a book reading and an Ezra Stiles College master's tea, where he gave advice to the aspiring writers in his audience and signed copies of his novels "Native Speaker" and "A Gesture Life."

Award-winning novelist discusses
the art of writing and reading

Novelist Chang-rae Lee knew he wanted to be a writer the moment he finished reading James Joyce's "The Dead." The author of the award-winning novel "Native Speaker" remembers reading the short story when he was 11 years old and thinking, "Wow, I think I know what art is. This is art." His aim as a writer has been to "approximate the feeling" he had at that moment for his readers. Lee, a 1987 graduate of Yale College, returned to campus on April 5 and 6 to read from his latest novel "A Gesture Life" and to answer questions about the art of writing at a tea in the Ezra Stiles College master's house. In addition to Joyce, Lee counts among his favorite authors Vladimir Nabokov, Thomas Pynchon, Don DeLillo and William Styron -- writers who are "conscious of their own language," he said. Reading their work, explained Lee, you get the "feeling that they're handwriting it out, that every word has texture and contour." Lee went on to describe his favorite writing as that which he "can hardly bear to get through because it's almost a physical thing." This visceral response is what Lee hopes to elicit from his readers. "I've always felt that if I could write something that you as a reader can hardly bear to read because it's so true or so real or so essential in some way, then that's good," said Lee. Although he wanted to be a writer from an early age, Lee never thought he could make a career out of it. After college, he headed to Wall Street and a career in finance. When the nephew of Hollywood film director Joseph Mankiewicz relayed some advice from his famous uncle -- "jobs are for suckers" -- Lee thought to himself, "I should just do what I want to do." He left his job after a year and enrolled in the creative writing program at the University of Oregon where he wrote "Native Speaker" as his thesis. The book, about a second-generation Korean who works as a privately employed spy and at home deals with a shaky marriage and the death of his young son, won the PEN/Hemingway and the American Book Awards. Lee confessed to being a writer who is "obsessed" and "focused on language," working on a sentence "five, six or a dozen times" until it's perfect before moving on. He admitted that "it's a stupid way of writing; it's absolutely not the recommended method." Writing this way has even forced Lee to throw out whole books as a result. "For me, the unit of measure is the sentence, and I really can't change it sentence by sentence," he explained. "You spend so much time on that sentence. How can you extract it or make it do something different?" Lee, who is the director of the writing program at Hunter College in New York City, had some words of advice for the aspiring writers in the audience. He emphasized that the most important thing for new writers is "to figure out your own voice." According to Lee, all stories have been told before, but "it's in the telling of it that makes a writer special." Lee went on to note that a good writer is a good reader first. He urged writers not only to read but to re-read what they love and ask themselves, "Why do I love this particular language? Why do I love this particular style of writing?" Re-reading can also remind a writer of what is important, said Lee, who reads Joyce's short story collection "Dubliners" every year to remind himself of that first feeling he had when he read "The Dead." -- By JinAh Lee T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S Donald Margulies wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama Broadway redesign project wins architecture award Four students win contests for aspiring entrepreneurs Study tracks second illness caused by ticks Telemundo chief executive will visit as Gordon Grand Fellow El Greco will be the focus of Yale painter's Rand Lecture Rep offering explores culture through music, dance, stories Student competition will unite an ancient mythical character and robots Puente enjoys spotlight during visit as Chubb Fellow Award-winning novelist discusses the art of writing and reading Leonard S. Doob, a specialist on ways of resolving conflict, dies 'Visionary' student wins award for his work with homeless people Neurologist Fuki Hisama is honored for her research on aging syndrome Library acquires papers of noted Caribbean novelist Lectures will explore emerging trend of 'personalized' medicine in drug industry Salmonella injections may improve treatment of cancer, study finds Artists will talk about their cutting-edge works DMCA event to feature 'sonic world' Campus Notes Yale Scoreboard In the News Bulletin Home|Visiting on Campus| Calendar of Events|Bulletin Board Classified Ads|Search Archives|Production Schedule|Bulletin Staff Public Affairs Home|News Releases| E-Mail Us|Yale Home Page