Bri Lee

Brianna “Bri” Lee (born 13 December 1991) is an Australian writer, editor, speaker, academic, women's rights activist and qualified lawyer with a Master of Philosophy in Creative Writing. She is best known for her 2018 memoir Eggshell Skull.[1]

Brianna "Bri" Lee
Born13 December 1991
Queensland, Australia
NationalityAustralian
OccupationWriter, editor, speaker, academic, women's rights activist and qualified lawyer
Known forLegal activism
Notable work
Eggshell Skull
Websitehttps://www.bri-lee.com/

Lee was the founder and editor of quarterly periodical Hot Chicks with Big Brains [2] and has made frequent appearances on the Australian literary circuit including the Brisbane Writers Festival[3] and Melbourne Writers Festival.[4] Lee spent a year as a judge's associate for the District Court of Queensland and is qualified to practise law but chooses not to. In 2020 Lee was appointed the Australian Copyright Agency's Writer-in-Residence at the University of Technology Sydney.[5]

Career

Writing & Journalism

As a writer, Lee has contributed to The Monthly, Good Weekend, Harper’s Bazaar Australia, The Saturday Paper, Crikey, The Guardian, Griffith Review, i-D, VAULT Art Magazine, and elsewhere.

Media

She appears on The Drum on ABC TV, various ABC Radio National programs, and runs the monthly “B List Bookclub” at the State Library of New South Wales.

Law

Lee studied Law and Mandarin at the University of Queensland. In 2015 Lee was a judge's associate in Brisbane, Queensland. During her year in the position, she assisted her judge with court proceedings and made notes during trials at the Brisbane court house, and on circuit to rural areas of Queensland.

Advocacy

Together with Bond University’s Professor Jonathan Crowe,[6] Bri co-authored legal research and built ConsentLawQLD.com, a platform for the advocacy that led to the Queensland Attorney-General referring consent and the ‘mistake of fact’ defence to the Law Reform Commission in 2019.[7]

Academia

Lee gained her Master of Philosophy in Creative Writing from University of Queensland in 2020.

Books & Journals

Eggshell Skull

Her book Eggshell Skull was published by Allen and Unwin in early 2018. It describes her experience as a complainant in the Australian court system for sexual abuse as a child by a family friend. The memoir spans three years from her first case as an associate and the two-year process of having her own complaint filed through the Australian justice system. Lee recounts the trauma of being sexually assaulted as a child by her brother's friend on the trampoline in her backyard. Lee did not admit that she was a victim of abuse until adulthood. The book contains numerous examp of sexism and a bias against women in complaints of sexual assault and harassment, with the majority of cases ending in a not guilty verdict despite truthful witness testimonies. In the book, Lee cites her first example of a historic abuse case with a male complainant as the reason she decided to make an official report to the police for her own assault. “He’d used the world ‘lighter’. I wanted ‘lighter’. I wanted to be able to let it go, to move on.”[8] Although Lee's assaulter admitted the offence on a recorded pretext phone call, the trial was continuously delayed for two years. Speaking at the University of Queensland Lee stated that she was concerned that any further delay would coincide with the publisher's deadline for Eggshell Skull, which she was writing contemporaneously to the case. In December 2017, the prosecution succeeded in winning the case on two counts of indecent treatment of a child. The sentence was subsequently appealed, however, the judgment on appeal has not been made publicly available.

The book's title is derived from the legal doctrine eggshell skull that states the court must take the victim as they find them. If Person A struck Person B on the head meaning only to punch but instead fatally wounded them because Person B's skull is as thin and fragile as an eggshell, Person A is responsible for the damage that they have caused. Lee's title subverts this maxim; the court takes her as a victim who is determined for justice and understands her rights within the complexities of the law.[9]

The portrayal of Lee in public appearances and interviews for Eggshell Skull can be separated into two distinct categories: Bri Lee the survivor, and Bri Lee the writer. In an interview with Australian network ABC about the #MeToo movement, Lee was questioned on why she wrote the book – not the process of how she wrote it.[10] She spoke about the other women that were assaulted, hoping that she would inspire them to speak out also. Lee's writing has also been discussed in a literary capacity. One example of this is Sydney-based Newtown Review of Books, who focus on the symbolism of the Hills Hoist throughout the text and praise Lee's unique and fresh perspective in her narrative voice.[11]

Beauty

Lee's second book, Beauty, a collection of essays about body image and perfectionism, was published by Allen & Unwin in October 2019.[12] From Westerly Magazine:

The irony of Dior producing t-shirts with the slogan ‘WE SHOULD ALL BE FEMINISTS’ but only forwarding them ‘to their approved list of toeing-the-line-influencers’ is not lost on Lee and she succeeds in conveying the hypocrisy apparent in such examp of exclusionary feminism (108). This is Lee’s gift: centring discussions around beauty institutions and practises which exploit and marginalise women, pitting them against themselves and preventing them from achieving lasting power and autonomy in the world. Lee is not the first to have raised the issue—a fact made evident by her references to Naomi Wolf’s The Beauty Myth (1990)—but every opportunity to interrogate the violence this industry does to women is worth pursuing, and Lee’s work is no exception.[13]

Hot Chicks With Big Brains

In 2015 Lee founded and edited Hot Chicks with Big Brains (HCWBB), to promote diverse non-fiction writing from working women. Beginning years prior, HCWBB originated as an interview series documenting the experiences of women at work, interrogating the overlap between their work and personal identities. Lee ran the print publication as founding editor alongside long time friend, cofounder and art director Anna Apuli. The online blog was managed by Emma Kate Lewis, with Yen-Rong Wong and Lauren Muggleton assisting with online content and social media.

The diversity of professionals featured in the HCWBB print journal included:

  • Author Clementine Ford
  • Award-winning British artist Zarah Hussain
  • Marie Claire Australia Fashion Editor-at-Large, Clare Press
  • Darug elder Aunty Jacinta Tobin
  • Patience Hodgson of The Grates
  • Greens MP Dr Mehreen Faruqi
  • Acclaimed author Fiona Wright
  • Dancer and dance-maker, Amrita Hepi
  • Climate change scientists Lee Constable and Rashmi Venkatram

Among those featured on the blog:

  • Novelist, lecturer, and social commentator Jane Caro
  • Singer Kira Puru
  • Australian singer/songwriter Gordi
  • Artist Abbey Rich
  • Author Jennifer Down
  • Comedians Stephanie Tisdell and Ting Lim
  • Musician Thelma Plum
  • Journalist Jill Stark
  • Playwright Candy Bowers
  • Writer Giselle Nguyen
  • Gangplank Studio director Tia Queen
  • Visual artist Lada Dedić
  • Playwright Suzie Miller

After seven quarterly issues, HCWBB is now defunct.[14]

Awards
YearAward Received
2016Ray Koppe Young Writer's Residency (Shortlisted)
Inaugural Kat Muscat Fellowship[15]
Ubud Writers Festival Exchange Program Scholarship
2017Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival writing mentorship
Griffith Review Queensland Writer's Fellowship[16]
Jacky Winter Gardens residency
2018Commonwealth Government scholarship and stipend for an MPhil in Creative Writing at the University of Queensland
Queensland Literary Award: Premier’s Young Publishers and Writers Award
Waverley Council "Nib Award" for research in fiction or non-fiction (People’s Choice)
Lord Mayor's Young and Emerging Artist's Fellowship[17]
2019People's Choice Award, Victorian Premier's Literary Awards for Eggshell Skull [18]
Biography Book of the Year, Australian Book Industry Awards for Eggshell Skull[19]
Ned Kelly Award for True Crime
Davitt Awards for Crime Writing (Best Debut Crime Book)
Australian Book Industry Award (Biography of the Year)
The Australian Financial Review's 100 Women of Influence — Young Leader[20]

References
  1. Lee, Bri (2018). Eggshell Skull. Allen and Unwin.
  2. Lee, Bri. "Hot Chicks with Big Brains". Archived from the original on 2018-08-06. Retrieved 24 October 2018.
  3. "Bri Lee". Brisbane Writers Festival. Archived from the original on 24 October 2018. Retrieved 24 October 2018.
  4. "Bri Lee". Melbourne Writer's Festival. Archived from the original on 24 October 2018. Retrieved 24 October 2018.
  5. "Bri Lee joins UTS as Copyright Agency's Writer-in-Residence". University of Technology Sydney. 2020-02-24. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  6. Wolfe, Natalie (July 10, 2019). "The few seconds and hair touch that let a rapist go free". News.com. Retrieved 3 Sep 2010.
  7. D'Ath, Yvette (9 July 2019). "Palaszczuk government to refer consent laws to Queensland Law Reform Commission". The Queensland Cabinet and Ministerial Directory. Retrieved 3 Sep 2020.
  8. Lee, Bri (2018). Eggshell Skull. Allen and Unwin. p. 167.
  9. "Bri Lee explains the title of Eggshell Skull". YouTube. Allen and Unwin. Retrieved 24 October 2018.
  10. "'Invincible' Bri urges other victims to report sexual assaults". YouTube. ABC News (Australia). Retrieved 24 October 2018.
  11. Blunt, Ashley Kalagian. "BRI LEE Eggshell Skull: A memoir about standing up, speaking out and fighting back". Newtown Review of Books. Retrieved 24 October 2018.
  12. Lee, Bri (2019). Beauty. [S.l.]: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 978-1760876524. OCLC 1111771887.
  13. Burrows, Lianda (17 Jan 2020). "A Review of 'Beauty' by Bri Lee". Westerly Magazine.
  14. Lee, Bri (3 September 2020). "Hot Chicks With Big Brains". HCWBB. Retrieved 3 September 2020.
  15. "Announcing the 2016 Kat Muscat Fellow". Express Media. Archived from the original on 2018-04-20. Retrieved 24 October 2018.
  16. "Fellowship winners announced". Griffith Review. 2017. Retrieved 24 October 2018.
  17. "Lord Mayor's Young Emerging Artists Fellowships". Archived from the original on 2018-05-12. Retrieved 24 October 2018.
  18. "Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2019". The Wheeler Centre. Retrieved 2019-01-31.
  19. Spring, Alexandra (2019-05-02). "'Extraordinary and beautiful storytelling': Boy Swallows Universe wins ABIA book of the year". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-05-02.
  20. "AFR's 11 most influential women revealed". Australian Financial Review. 2019-10-22. Retrieved 2019-10-23.
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