Bri Lee is something of a phenomenon. The author of three non-fiction works, each of which has very publicly stirred up the murky waters of the commentariat, she has now written a novel, entitled The Work.

Here is Annabel Crabb on the subject:

“Well this is annoying. Bri Lee—whose nonfiction debut Eggshell Skull revealed a fine mind and a stout heart—turns out to be a brilliant novelist as well. This novel isn’t just good; it’s superb. Assured, and powerful, and intelligent, and very, VERY hard to put down. Bri Lee has an established knack of articulating human confusion, pain and the cracks that open up in the systems we design to govern ourselves. And in The Work, she brings all her thrilling intelligence and her journalist’s eye to the art world, and its awkward historic dicta about who gets to make art, and how badly they can behave while they’re making it. Also it’s a love story. And a story about growing up in the country and moving to the city, observed with a perfect degree of spiky tenderness. I consumed it in a passion..."

Here at Outspoken we’re delighted to have been able to persuade Bri to come to Maleny to discuss her novel, but also to talk around her many other projects. These include, but are not confined to: lecturing in Media Law at Sydney University, where she’s doing a PhD into how Australia’s defamation laws stifle free speech; working as a guide on small group tours - the present one is to Egypt; doing weekend writing workshops.

Our introducing author will be Carly-Jay Metcalfe. Carly-Jay recently published the stunningly frank and darkly funny memoir Breath, about living, dying and trying to breath. Beejay Silcox writes: ‘The only thing more remarkable than Carly-Jay Metcalfe’s story is the way she tells it. Breath captures the privileges and pains of living in our transitory bodies. The absurdities. The cruelties. The bone-deep joys. This book is a love letter to the sublime human mess. An invitation to pay attention to every precious lungful.’