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.
Award History
2012 Finalist
Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfictionfor The Measure of a Man: The Story of a Father, a Son, and a Suit
Jury 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)
