Jessica J Lee
Jessica J. Lee is a British-Canadian-Taiwanese author and environmental historian. Her first book, Turning, was longlisted for the Frank Hegyi Award for Emerging Authors. She won the 2019 RBC Taylor Prize Emerging Writer Award and the 2020 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction for her book Two Trees Make a Forest: In Search of My Family's Past Among Taiwan's Mountains and Coasts. Lee’s other literary wins include the Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature and the Banff Mountain Book Award, while her other works include the children’s book A Garden Called Home, and the co-edited essay collection Dog Hearted. She has a doctorate in environmental history and aesthetics and is the founding editor of The Willowherb Review. Originally from London, Ontario, Lee lives in Berlin and teaches creative writing at the University of Cambridge.
Writers & Books
Videos
Jessica J. Lee on Two Trees Make a Forest, 2020 Weston Prize winner
Award History
2020 - Winner
Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction
forTwo Trees Make a Forest: In Search of My Family's Past Among Taiwan's Mountains and Coasts
Jury Citation
“Two Trees Make a Forest clears a path into the geographical wonders of Taiwan, a country best known for its fractious relationship with the People’s Republic of China. Jessica J. Lee shares her knowledge of linguistics and environmental history as she hikes the fault lines of her own family’s story in sentences that make you gasp in admiration. Hers is a tale of political disruption, civil war, displacement, environmental ravages, and intergenerational trauma. She sets a speedy narrative pace, like a trained guide with nightfall looming, but she knows the value of slowing her stride so readers can absorb the luscious vistas she is describing and the familial tragedy she is mourning. This book will haunt you.” — 2020 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction jury (Helen Knott, Sandra Martin, and Ronald Wright)Works Recognized by WT