Last week author JJ Lee spent two days with the Writing 12 class, giving his insights into writing.

JJ’s first book, a memoir, The Measure of a Man: The Story of a Father, a Son and a Suit has been short listed for the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non Fiction and the Governor General’s Award for Non Fiction.

JJ’s essay ELLE First: You are Beautiful for Elle Magazine won gold for best short feature at the National Magazine Awards.

JJ writes a monthly menswear advice column for the Vancouver Sun and is often heard on CBC. He is currently working on a series about fashion in the James Bond flicks, in honour of the 5oth anniversary.

During his time with the class, JJ  imparted some advice “…drill down to the heart of a story… A story without reflection is not worth reading…” and a few writing tricks as well  “be a ‘was’ killer and find the power word”.

Here is a link to a video of JJ telling a true story of his role in a tram crash in Australia  – worth a watch – enjoy!

We have JJ’s book in the library.