Stephan Lee, an American journalist, podcaster and author, is set to make history with his debut book, K-pop Rookie, the first K-pop novel to be published in the UK.

Lee, a former Entertainment Weekly editor, and current editor at women’s magazine Bustle brings the Korean pop scene to a young adult literary audience, with a novel following a Korean-American teenager who travels to Seoul in the hope of joining a girl group, before being swept up in a world of rivalries and boyband love triangles. Taking inspiration from The Hunger Games, Lee’s debut will focus on the glamorous world of K-pop, made popular by bands like BTS, and its harsh competitive reality, and is scheduled for an autumn 2020 release.