Min Jin Lee '90, an internationally acclaimed novelist, essayist, editor, and critic, will be Yale's 2026 Class Day speaker, the university announced today.
The annual Class Day event, which is held the day before the university's commencement exercises, celebrates the Yale College graduating class with a program of student performances, awards, and other long-held traditions. This year's ceremony will begin at 2 p.m. on Sunday, May 17, on Old Campus. The event is open to the public.
Lee, who emigrated with her family from Seoul, South Korea, to Queens, New York, at age seven, received her B.A. in history from Yale in 1990.
"With her extraordinary novels, Min Jin Lee reminds us of the power of the written word to transport us across time and space, spark new insights into own lives, and reaffirm our collective humanity," said Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis. "Her writing invites us to see the world, and understand our places in it, with fresh eyes and greater compassion. I am excited to welcome her back to her alma mater and to share in our graduates' experience of listening to her Class Day address."
Her novel "Pachinko" - the second installment of her planned "Diaspora Quartet" - was a National Book Award finalist and one of the New York Times "100 Best Books of the Century." It also earned Lee the Fitzgerald Prize for Literary Excellence.
Lee nurtured a love of reading at her local public library in New York City and went on to graduate from the Bronx High School of Science before attending Yale (where she lived in Trumbull College) and then Georgetown Law School. She is known for her deeply researched fiction that traces the lives of Koreans and Korean Americans over generations. Her third novel, "American Hagwon" - named for the rigorous after-school education centers that are widespread in South Korea - is scheduled for release in September.
"It is a privilege of a lifetime to return to school to honor the Class of 2026," Lee said. "My four years at Yale shaped my point of view on history, literature, English, politics, sociology, and ethics. However, when life grew difficult, I needed more than what was in my head, so I returned to what my classmates, professors, clergy, and the people who worked at Yale had put into my heart to carry me through. I look forward to Class Day, and I thank the Class of 2026 for including me in their celebration."
Lee has been recognized with fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. As a Yale student, she was awarded the English Department's Wright Memorial Prize for nonfiction and the James A. Veech Prize for fiction. She currently serves as the New York State Author Laureate and an Amherst College writer-in-residence. She is writing a memoir, "Name Recognition," and working on her next novel, "Marshall Plan," which will complete the Diaspora Quartet.
Yale College Class Day dates to the 19th century, when members of the graduating class would gather in a circle on the lawn of Old Campus to share stories and memories from their undergraduate years. Today the ceremony is headlined by a notable speaker and includes the conferral of top academic, artistic, athletic, and service prizes as well as a creative program developed by a committee of graduating seniors. Past Class Day speakers include poet, educator, and philanthropic leader Elizabeth Alexander '84; former United States surgeon general Vivek H. Murthy '03 M.D., '03 M.B.A.; and the Right Honorable Dame Jacinda Ardern, prime minister of New Zealand from 2017 to 2023.
Information for those planning to attend can be found on the Yale Commencement website.
