ISSUED: 14 September 2018
MEDIA CONTACT: Valerie Owens
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — Hyeonseo Lee, author of “The Girl with Seven Names,” Shepherd University’s 2018-2019 Common Reading book, will speak on Monday, October 1, at 7 p.m. in the Frank Center Theater. A book signing and refreshments will follow her lecture.
Lee is a North Korean defector living in South Korea. She escaped from North Korea in 1997 at the age of 17, living as an illegal immigrant in China for 10 years before going to South Korea and seeking asylum. Lee eventually helped get her family out of North Korea. Her 2013 TED talk about life in North Korea and her escape has been viewed more than 13 million times.
Lee spends much of her time speaking about North Korean human rights and refugee issues and has given speeches at the Stanford University Global Speaker Series, Princeton University, New York University Law School, and at various venues throughout the world. She is currently writing a book with other female North Koreans who live in South Korea and is planning to start an organization to help promising North Korean refugees interact with the international community.
Shepherd’s Common Reading program chooses one book each academic year, with a goal of providing a shared intellectual experience, creating a sense of community, encouraging reading, promoting engagement of ideas, setting academic expectations, promoting interaction between Shepherd and the community, and introducing students to community resources.
Lee’s appearance, sponsored by the Shepherd University Common Reading Program, is made possible through the support of the Shepherd University Foundation. For more information, visit www.shepherd.edu/commonreading.
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