Writer Chang-Rae Lee reads from his new book, “Aloft”

“I don’t really like to read,” writer Chang-Rae Lee said before launching into a 30-minute… “I don’t really like to read,” writer Chang-Rae Lee said before launching into a 30-minute reading.

Lee spoke at the Frick Fine Arts Auditorium Thursday and gave audience members a taste of his yet-to-be-published novel, “Aloft.”

The 37-year-old has written the novels “Native Speaker” and “A Gesture Life.” He has also published numerous essays and stories in publications such as The New Yorker and The New York Times, including “The Spicy Pleasures of Phuket.”

Lee’s novel “Native Speaker” was almost chosen for the “One City, One Book,” program in New York City, however the city was unable to unite under one book and the program fell through.

“It’s a good thing New York didn’t pick me – I would have been stoned in Union Square,” Lee said.

After a brief introduction, Lee read a chapter of “Aloft,” a novel about an aging travel agent named Jerry Battle. Battle is a traveler, a father and a sympathetic friend.

With Battle as an Italian-American, this is the first time Lee’s main character has not been an Asian.

“I can and will write about anyone who will interest me,” Lee said, adding that Battle was loosely based on “someone.”

Lee immigrated to the United States through Pittsburgh from Korea in 1968 when he was a toddler. He spent the next nine months in this city. Thursday’s reading was the first time he returned.

“I don’t remember all these imposing buildings,” he said.

Lee appeared as this season’s final reader for the Pittsburgh Contemporary Writers Series, a lecture series that was started in 1999. Writers appear in one graduate and one undergraduate class for a question and answer session, and then perform public readings.

There was a reception with food after the reading where Lee was able to speak to Pitt students and faculty.

“There’s no point in bringing a famous writer to campus unless he’s going to talk to students,” Pitt creative writing professor Geeta Kothari said.

“[Lee] is a tremendous young talent, tremendous in his ability to advise amateur writers,” said junior Sabrina Spiher, a student in the undergraduate class chosen for the question and answer session. -Mac Booker contributed to this story.