Jules Lee began writing or, more specifically, rewriting at an early age.
“I used to love watching shows on Family Channel and sometimes I wasn’t satisfied with the ending or with how things went, so I would rewrite it the way I thought it should be,” Lee recalled.
As she grew, so did the depth of her writing. She discovered her love of poetry as a tween, on the microblogging site, Tumblr.
“It was the first medium I got into,” she said. “I saw a lot of poetry being shared and thought, ‘oh, I have a lot of these feelings too, let’s give it a shot.’ I was 12 when I started posting some of my poems there and I still have friends from that Tumblr writing community today.”
Cultivating community is part of Lee’s directive as Western’s 2024-25 student writer-in-residence.
It’s a mandate she can get behind.
“Finding community in writing or in real life is really encouraging,” said Lee, who looks forward to connecting with other student writers as a peer mentor and fostering a culture of creativity across Western and London, Ont.
“I’ve been writing for a long time, and I’ve always found it to be very isolating, especially in the beginning. It feels lonely and it’s scary to share your writing with somebody else.”
From ‘shy’ creative to inspired, aspiring mentor
Jules Lee (Christopher Kindratsky/Western Communications)
Lee, a fourth-year student pursuing an honors specialization in English literature and creative writing and a minor in environment and geography, is moved by different mediums.
“I’m a big fan of mixing media together, with a lot of my writing inspired by visual art, music or photography,” she said.
Her tattoos tell stories as well.
On one arm, a ghost peeks out a window with a camera, reflecting Lee’s interest in photography and reminding her “to capture each moment.”
“Sometimes I feel like a ghost in my own life, and when I take photos, it reminds me I’m alive and to be present.”
The other arm bears a small drawing of her childhood home in Keswick, Ont.
“I’ve been in the same town my entire life, so it’s a very special place to me.”
It’s also the muse for her works of short fiction, her other favourite genre.
“The short story leaves something to the imagination. There’s only so much you can fit into it. A lot of it is what goes unspoken, unwritten,” she said.
In high school, she entered a short story contest, at the urging of her mother.
“It was two days before the deadline and I didn’t really want to enter, but it was COVID and I was bored, so I did.”
The story, which she wrote in “about two hours” took first prize and was published in the local paper.
Since coming to Western, her work has been featured in student and faculty publications including Symposium, The Coterie‘s SNAPS and Huron’s Grubstreet.
She’s also the current creative director of ICONOCLAST, “Western’s art and culture collective,” and hopes to bridge that role with her post as student writer-in-residence to host collaborative writing workshops and mixed media events.
Her first words of advice come from her own experience as a “shy and quiet” writer who initially found it hard to seek the help of others.
“I know it can be intimidating and I struggle with this myself, but the best thing you can do as a young writer is to put yourself out there and share your writing with somebody else. It can be scary, but vulnerability is key to improving and getting your work noticed.”
Lee credits award-winning author and best-selling writer Sheila Heti for helping her overcome her fear of sharing her work.
Heti taught ‘The Creative Moment’ class at Western last year, a course designed for any students interested in creative writing and the creative process itself.
“She changed my life,” Lee said of Heti. “I have never had a class like that before. She’d assign a book, and then have us discuss it, share ideas and do a writing exercise. That forced us to get to know each other right away. There was no being shy in her class. She’d ask us about our craft and about our inspiration. She brought out the best in all of us, and it was amazing to see how she pushed people who weren’t as comfortable at first, out of their shell.”
“I was in a bit of a writing slump before that course, but being in the class reignited something in me,” she added.
It’s also what ultimately pushed Lee to apply for the student writer-in-residence role.
“I found being around like-minded people who wanted to write, who were interested in bettering themselves and their writing was really inspiring. I thought, if I can be a ‘mini-Sheila Heti’ and promote this kind atmosphere around campus, I definitely want to do this.”
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Student writer-in-residence office hours for the fall semester are from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. on Wednesdays. Appointments can be made by email.
