Lee's career started in 1998 when she published the poems "Jihado ipgu-eseo" (지하도 입구에서 At the Entrance of the Underground Passage), "Uponeup" (우포늪 Upo Marsh), and "Amudo boji mot-han punggyeong" (아무도 보지 못한 풍경 A Scene Nobody Has Seen) in Literature and Society, as well as a critical essay in 2001 in 21st Century Literature.
She has published poetry collections Bulssuk naemin son (불쑥 내민 손 Suddenly Given Hand), and Ta-ileu modeun gut (타일의 모든 것 Everything About Tiles).
From the time of her debut, Lee Gi-seong was praised as ‘a poet that had carved out a territory of her own with thoroughly detailed description of the ruinous aspect of life’.
[3] In her first poetry collection Bulssuk naemin son (불쑥 내민 손; Suddenly Given Hand), published in 2004, is a detailed record of life in a city marred by death and corruption.
Also, this collection has painfully depicted the process of how a modern person becomes aware of the uncomfortable discord, loneliness, and desolation that unexpectedly arise from everyday life.