[2] Lee began his writing career in earnest in 1994 with a series of poems being published as winners of the new writer's award in the poetry division of the literary journal Contemporary Literature.
[3] The Korea Literature Translation Institute summarizes Lee's work: Moreover, he is active in other diverse roles, including holding a permanent post on the editorial committee of a leading literary magazine, which is unprecedented at his age, and as a well-known literary critic in his own right, having published incisive analyses of the esoteric works of his contemporaries, including Hwang Byeongseung, Kim Haengsuk, and Kim Minjeong.
[5] Lee has published two collections of poetry in Korea, Sand Mountain in My Sleep and Hopeful Songs at Noon (2006).
Lee was a resident at the University of Iowa International Writing Program in 2008, which he participated in as a courtesy of the Korea Literature Translation Institute.
At that residency Lee spoke about traveling to Russia, "Fourteen years ago, in the winter of 1994, I embarked on a long journey from St. Petersburg to Chuvashia with Andrei, who was my roommate at the time,"[8] and expressed his own view of the role of literature's role in society: Poetry Collections Novels Collections of Short Stories Criticism