Jessica J. Lee is a British-Canadian-Taiwanese author, environmental historian, founding editor of the Willowherb Review, and tutor at the University of Cambridge. She is a contributor to Granta magazine.
She is the author of three books of nature writing, Turning, Two Trees Make a Forest, and Dispersals (forthcoming), and co-editor of the essay collection Dog Hearted. She is winner of the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction, the Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature, the Banff Mountain Book Award, and the RBC Taylor Prize Emerging Writer Award. She has a PhD in Environmental History and Aesthetics and lives in Berlin.
Testimonials
‘The course with Jessica broadened my perspective on writing, but also on what I write about. Jessica’s classes are a highly inspiring mix of reading, writing, and workshop, offering valuable feedback in an international setting.’
Johannes J. Arens
‘Jessica is one of those rare great writers who is also a great teacher. She brought her artistry as a writer, expertise in environmental history, and knowledge of publishing trends and literature of the more-than-human world to our course in a perfect balance of instruction, in-class prompts, and workshopping. As her student, Jessica gave me invaluable guidance on next steps for turning the sample chapter I workshopped into a successful book proposal. I cannot recommend taking a class with Jessica enough!’
Stephanie Krzywonos, author of Ice Folx: An Antarctic Memoir (Harper, 2025), MFA Candidate at the University of Iowa’s Nonfiction Writing Program