JJ
Lee
JJ Lee was a finalist for the 2012 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction for The Measure of a Man: The Story of a Father, a Son, and a Suit. The book was also shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction, the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction, and the BC Book Prizes Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize. In 2014, he hosted the CBC radio show Head to Toe. His fashion and personal essays are published in ELLE Canada. Earlier this year, he served as a juror for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Student Nonfiction Writing Contest, which is affiliated with this prize. Lee lives in New Westminster, British Columbia.
Writers & Books
Award History
2012 - Finalist
Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction
for The Measure of a Man: The Story of a Father, a Son, and a SuitJury Citation
“JJ Lee artfully blends a first-person narrative with a sartorial history of that most symbolic of men’s garments, the suit. The Measure of a Man is a memoir of a dysfunctional, occasionally violent, childhood and a biography of Lee’s alcoholic, immigrant father. It is also the contemporary story of Lee’s apprenticeship at a tailor’s shop. Lee’s disassembly and alteration of a jacket mirrors the reconstruction of his relationship with the suit’s original wearer, his late father. By turns nostalgic and unflinching, these story strands weave together to form a poignant exploration of identity and manhood.” – 2012 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction Jury (James Bartleman, Charlotte Gill, and Marni Jackson)Juror History
Works Recognized by WT