Jessica J. Lee

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Author and Environmental Historian. Books: Turning (2017) and Two Trees Make a Forest (2019; forthcoming in the US/Canada 2020). Founding editor at The Willowherb Review. @jessicajlee on Twitter and Instagram. More at: jessicajleewrites.com

Stories

Cover Photo: A screenshot from Liziqi's YouTube video. On the table are purple potatoes, soy milk, steamed rice cakes, fruits, and flowers. An elderly Chinese woman sit as the table holding a spoon filled with some soy milk.
What Soybeans Can Be

Soybeans were linked to life itself.

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Jessica J. Lee
Jun 17, 2020
Columns | Non Native Species
Cover Photo: An illustration of woman holding a mango on her hands to the left side of the illustration. In the background is a mango tree. On the right is a building with a woman using picking pole to get the mangoes on the tree.
The Many Meanings of the Mango

Mangoes—revered and prized by almost every culture in which they are cultivated—are a migrant fruit.

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Jessica J. Lee
May 11, 2020
Columns | Non Native Species
Cover Photo: An image of heather on hill at sunset.
How the Literature of Empire Shaped My View of the Natural World

It took me years before I realized that I’d built my notions of beauty from the stories of a distant land.

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Jessica J. Lee
Apr 02, 2020
Columns | Non Native Species
Cover Photo: An image of a Fukien Tea Tree against a light pink background. On the right side of the tree we see the growth of green leaves. A white flower grows from a branch into the left, surrounded by branches.
My Grandfather and the Fukien Tea Tree: A Botanical History

I added it to the list of things off-limits: questions about the past, the wars, why my grandparents had fled China for Taiwan. Why eventually they left that place too.

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Jessica J. Lee
Feb 19, 2020
Columns | Non Native Species