Christine Hyung-Oak Lee 🐝💨
@xtinehlee.bsky.social
Author of TELL ME EVERYTHING YOU DON’T REMEMBER Ecco/Harper Collins | 🐓+🐝💨 | doberman mind, dachshund body | Essays Editor @ The Offing | she/they
Substack: christinehlee.substack.com
IG: @xtinehleewriter
Rep: Ayesha Pande
Substack: christinehlee.substack.com
IG: @xtinehleewriter
Rep: Ayesha Pande
Will be using Calibri for the indefinite future.
December 10, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Will be using Calibri for the indefinite future.
Why is it when folks say “my old lady,” it means wife/girlfriend….and when folks say “my old man,” it means not husband or boyfriend but father?
Huh.
Huh.
December 8, 2025 at 8:02 PM
Why is it when folks say “my old lady,” it means wife/girlfriend….and when folks say “my old man,” it means not husband or boyfriend but father?
Huh.
Huh.
I wish writing were like GPS where if you do something weird or make a wrong turn, the story just continues (without judgment) and somehow still makes sense. But nope.
December 3, 2025 at 7:37 PM
I wish writing were like GPS where if you do something weird or make a wrong turn, the story just continues (without judgment) and somehow still makes sense. But nope.
Wait. What discourse on Toni Morrison did I just miss??? Are ppl besmirching her genius?
November 25, 2025 at 11:20 PM
Wait. What discourse on Toni Morrison did I just miss??? Are ppl besmirching her genius?
Most movies from the 80s and 90s don’t age well. Cutting Edge got a lot right, including the concept of consent.
November 6, 2025 at 12:38 AM
Most movies from the 80s and 90s don’t age well. Cutting Edge got a lot right, including the concept of consent.
Please please please double space your essays when submitting. When you are >50 and on your 20th essay read of the day, you will understand what an immense courtesy it is to double space.
November 6, 2025 at 12:15 AM
Please please please double space your essays when submitting. When you are >50 and on your 20th essay read of the day, you will understand what an immense courtesy it is to double space.
Just saw a man running across the street in SF holding a toilet plunger in one hand and an empty glass coffee carafe in another.
This is a story.
This is a story.
November 1, 2025 at 10:14 PM
Just saw a man running across the street in SF holding a toilet plunger in one hand and an empty glass coffee carafe in another.
This is a story.
This is a story.
wow, SF is so insistent on Fleet Week, that bc the Blue Angels aren't available (due to govt shutdown), we are getting "Canadian Forces Snowbirds." Are we in a mockumentary, clue #257.
www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/f...
www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/f...
S.F. Fleet Week air show photos: Meet the ‘rock star’ Canadian Snowbirds
With the Blue Angels sidelined by the government shutdown, a team of Canadian flyers was promoted to a starring role in this year’s San Francisco Fleet Week festivities.
www.sfchronicle.com
October 11, 2025 at 2:45 AM
wow, SF is so insistent on Fleet Week, that bc the Blue Angels aren't available (due to govt shutdown), we are getting "Canadian Forces Snowbirds." Are we in a mockumentary, clue #257.
www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/f...
www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/f...
I just don’t even want to have boobs anymore.
October 1, 2025 at 6:17 AM
I just don’t even want to have boobs anymore.
Apple rankings dot com is the Kirkus Reviews of apples (the fruit, not the brand). So vicious, so on point. A good read. Especially if you care at all about apples.
applerankings.com
applerankings.com
Home - Apple Rankings by The Appleist Brian Frange - Comedian Brian Frange
The industry-standard, definitive, inarguable guide to ranking and reviewing munching apples. Curated by comedian Brian Frange.
applerankings.com
September 23, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Apple rankings dot com is the Kirkus Reviews of apples (the fruit, not the brand). So vicious, so on point. A good read. Especially if you care at all about apples.
applerankings.com
applerankings.com
The most unrealistic part of The movie WITNESS is the part in the beginning where the good cop fills a PUBLIC BATHROOM SINK with water and then washes his face with PUBLIC SINK WATER. He got murdered but maybe he was a goner anyway.
September 20, 2025 at 12:05 AM
The most unrealistic part of The movie WITNESS is the part in the beginning where the good cop fills a PUBLIC BATHROOM SINK with water and then washes his face with PUBLIC SINK WATER. He got murdered but maybe he was a goner anyway.
What if the reason that the Jetsons looks like our current future is bc the source material is from someone who traveled to the future?
September 20, 2025 at 12:04 AM
What if the reason that the Jetsons looks like our current future is bc the source material is from someone who traveled to the future?
Fascism spreading.
September 18, 2025 at 1:05 AM
Fascism spreading.
Stop! Chewing so loud. Stop smacking your lips every time before you swallow. I’m just sitting here seething. Because I can’t say anything bc it hurts your feelings but it’s hurting my brain and now I’m tuning out and on bluesky so I will stop hearing it.
September 15, 2025 at 2:51 AM
Stop! Chewing so loud. Stop smacking your lips every time before you swallow. I’m just sitting here seething. Because I can’t say anything bc it hurts your feelings but it’s hurting my brain and now I’m tuning out and on bluesky so I will stop hearing it.
Sh*tler keeps saying it’s a left winger who is the assassin. But every liberal I know doesn’t own a gun, and definitely doesn’t have that kind of aim. Unless it’s a bow and arrow. The liberals I know are very talented at making protest posters.
September 11, 2025 at 4:47 PM
Sh*tler keeps saying it’s a left winger who is the assassin. But every liberal I know doesn’t own a gun, and definitely doesn’t have that kind of aim. Unless it’s a bow and arrow. The liberals I know are very talented at making protest posters.
Punch nazis.
If you’re offended by this, then think about why. Because <jeff foxworthy voice>you might be a Nazi if…</jeff foxworthy voice>
If you’re offended by this, then think about why. Because <jeff foxworthy voice>you might be a Nazi if…</jeff foxworthy voice>
September 10, 2025 at 7:49 PM
Punch nazis.
If you’re offended by this, then think about why. Because <jeff foxworthy voice>you might be a Nazi if…</jeff foxworthy voice>
If you’re offended by this, then think about why. Because <jeff foxworthy voice>you might be a Nazi if…</jeff foxworthy voice>
I am still thinking about my desk in the office to which I never ever returned after March 2020.
September 8, 2025 at 1:31 AM
I am still thinking about my desk in the office to which I never ever returned after March 2020.
I would love to pitch a food writing/travel essay. Where do people suggest I pitch?
September 6, 2025 at 4:46 AM
I would love to pitch a food writing/travel essay. Where do people suggest I pitch?
open.substack.com/pub/christin...
In which I talk about a room and the process of assembling it, which is a kind of writing process in and of itself.
In which I talk about a room and the process of assembling it, which is a kind of writing process in and of itself.
What does a writing room look like?
A writing room is my history of pink
open.substack.com
September 3, 2025 at 4:44 PM
open.substack.com/pub/christin...
In which I talk about a room and the process of assembling it, which is a kind of writing process in and of itself.
In which I talk about a room and the process of assembling it, which is a kind of writing process in and of itself.
What…is the point of living?
September 3, 2025 at 3:49 PM
What…is the point of living?
Welp. I wrote about being a mom to a budding teenager, and how her independence is both rejection and permission. open.substack.com/pub/christin...
A birthday present: Free again from the cocoon
Getting a life!
open.substack.com
August 18, 2025 at 8:02 PM
Welp. I wrote about being a mom to a budding teenager, and how her independence is both rejection and permission. open.substack.com/pub/christin...
I am an extremely practical person who moreover admires pragmatism. But. When I go into Fiction Writing Land, I become utterly absent minded. Yo, I just did TWO loads of laundry (and dried them) and FORGOT the detergent. (Only realized on the 3rd load). Haha I get to redo all the laundry now. Ha. Um
August 17, 2025 at 6:11 PM
I am an extremely practical person who moreover admires pragmatism. But. When I go into Fiction Writing Land, I become utterly absent minded. Yo, I just did TWO loads of laundry (and dried them) and FORGOT the detergent. (Only realized on the 3rd load). Haha I get to redo all the laundry now. Ha. Um
These days I’m writing about multiple journeys: my trip to Seoul and Tokyo and the ensuing psychological journeys. This time, I write specifically about Seorak Mountain.
christinehlee.substack.com/p/mountains-...
christinehlee.substack.com/p/mountains-...
Mountains and mountains
My relatives always take me to mountains in South Korea: Samaksan and Seoraksan
christinehlee.substack.com
August 12, 2025 at 9:32 PM
These days I’m writing about multiple journeys: my trip to Seoul and Tokyo and the ensuing psychological journeys. This time, I write specifically about Seorak Mountain.
christinehlee.substack.com/p/mountains-...
christinehlee.substack.com/p/mountains-...
Parenting a teenager is crying alone in your office stifling sobs. Because you always have to stay calm and empathetic when they say hurtful things to you. And inside your heart is breaking. And when you asked what you did wrong, they told you “you just being you” in the calmest voice.
August 10, 2025 at 4:14 AM
Parenting a teenager is crying alone in your office stifling sobs. Because you always have to stay calm and empathetic when they say hurtful things to you. And inside your heart is breaking. And when you asked what you did wrong, they told you “you just being you” in the calmest voice.
Also of course napping moms. I remember visiting a friend and her mom was always napping on the couch, even on weekdays. In nth level nap skills, she even had a hole in her wall next to the couch. she would pet the dog when it sticks its head through the hole. From the couch. Horror and awe.
August 5, 2025 at 11:37 PM
Also of course napping moms. I remember visiting a friend and her mom was always napping on the couch, even on weekdays. In nth level nap skills, she even had a hole in her wall next to the couch. she would pet the dog when it sticks its head through the hole. From the couch. Horror and awe.