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Jessica J. Lee

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Jessica J. Lee
NationalityBritish and Canadian
Occupationwriter
Websitehttps://www.jessicajleewrites.com/

Jessica J. Lee is a British and Canadian author,[1] environmental historian.[2]

Biography

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Lee was born in Canada, to a Welsh father and a Taiwanese mother. She was brought up in Canada, lived in London and Berlin.[3]

She received her BA from University of King's College in Halifax, her MA from University of London.[4] She then received her PhD in Environmental History and Aesthetics from York University.

In 2018, Lee founded the non-fiction journal The Willowherb Review. Receiving funds from fewer than a hundred backers on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, Lee and company paid writers and artists to produce five issues, with the project formally ending in 2022. The journal had also been funded by a grant provided by Arts Council England.[5][6]

Reviewers noted that her 2019 memoir Two Trees Make a Forest incorporates elements of environmental analysis to her account of exploring Taiwan, where her mother was born.[7][8] The book won the 2020 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction.[9]

Awards

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Lee won the 2019 RBC Taylor Prize for emerging authors.[4] The prize came with $10,000 cash, and the mentorship of Kate Harris.[10]

Publications

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  • Jessica J. Lee (2017). Turning: A Swimming Memoir. Little, Brown Book Group. ISBN 9780349008349.
  • Jessica J. Lee (2020). Two Trees Make a Forest: Travels Among Taiwan's Mountains & Coasts in Search of My Family's Past. Penguin Canada. ISBN 9780735239586.

References

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  1. ^ "Jessica J. Lee". Sierra Club. 5 August 2020. Retrieved 6 August 2020.
  2. ^ "12 Canadian books coming out in July we can't wait to read". CBC Books. 7 July 2020. Retrieved 24 July 2020. A chance discovery of letters written by her immigrant grandfather leads Jessica J. Lee to her ancestral homeland, Taiwan.
  3. ^ Rath, Anna von. "Turning: A Swimming Memoir". poco.lit. Retrieved 6 August 2020.
  4. ^ a b "Jessica J. Lee awarded RBC Taylor Prize". David Godwin Associates. 17 April 2019. Retrieved 24 July 2020. RBC Taylor Prize Founder Noreen Taylor commented: "Jessica J. Lee is exactly the kind of writer we envision for the Emerging Author award. A multi-talented young person, Lee is about to break out on several fronts.
  5. ^ Jessica J. Lee (July 2019). "Editor's note". The Willowherb Review. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
  6. ^ "The best books of 2019 – picked by the year's best writers". The Guardian. 1 December 2019. Retrieved 24 July 2020. Lee is editor of the Willowherb Review, publishing nature writing by writers of colour, including Nina Mingya Powles, winner of the inaugural Nan Shepherd prize.
  7. ^ Kristen Schott (24 April 2020). "The Language of Self-Discovery: On Jessica J. Lee's "Two Trees Make a Forest"". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved 24 July 2020. JESSICA J. LEE ASKS the reader to consider slippery definitions of family in her complicated but thoughtful memoir, Two Trees Make a Forest: In Search of My Family's Past Among Taiwan's Mountains and Coasts, which weaves the political character of Taiwan with her family's own heritage and her journey of self-discovery amid the rural landscapes of the island.
  8. ^ Katie Burton (6 March 2020). "TWO TREES MAKE A FOREST: On Memory, Migration and Taiwan by Jessica J Lee book review". Geographical magazine. Retrieved 24 July 2020. Intermingled family, geographical and political history make this a fascinating and gentle read. It is both an introduction to Taiwan, its people and its topography, and a highly personal, and honest, account of one family.
  9. ^ Craig Takeuchi, "Gil Adamson, Jessica J. Lee win Writers’ Trust literary prizes". Now, November 19, 2020.
  10. ^ Jane van Koeverden (16 April 2019). "Jessica J. Lee wins $10K RBC Taylor Prize Emerging Writer Award". CBC Books. Retrieved 25 July 2020. Jessica J. Lee, author of the memoir Turning, has been awarded the 2019 RBC Taylor Prize Emerging Writer Award, a prize that comes with $10,000 and mentorship from RBC Taylor Prize winner Kate Harris.
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