Litty Committee Young Writer OTY

Bri Lee

You’re officially Litty Committee's Young Writer of the Year!!! How does it feel?

Woohoo!! I'm stoked.

It makes me happy that there are more people reading and getting excited about books.

Not this old 'digital media versus literature' fake binary bullshit

Literally

(Or do I mean literary-ally? Hmm, will see myself out)

LOL I'll let that one slide

Ty ty 🙏

So — The Work is your first ever fiction book. For people who haven’t read it yet (fools), how would you describe it?

Ooh okay well…

It's contemporary realism, for a start. Set between Australia and the USA. The chapters alternate between two people's lives and perspectives, and they both work in the nuts and bolts of the art world but - and this is important - they aren't artists themselves.

Pat is in his late 20s. Grew up in regional Queensland and now lives and works in Eastern Suburbs Sydney in an old arts and antiquities company.

Lally is in her early 30s. She owns and runs her own modern, contemporary, sometimes experimental art gallery in Chelsea, NYC.

They meet and they fight a lot and fuck a lot and both try not to fall in love.

But they're also both ambitious, and making some bad work and life decisions - sometimes to survive and sometimes to thrive.

And they each have a sort of big thing that happens to them.

Lol

Beginning middle climax ending

Ta-dah

When I read it I was screaming at the two of them to get over themselves and let themselves fall in love….. no spoilers, but it definitely wasn’t your typical love story

Ha! I'm glad it made you feel that strongly in any particular direction. Job done

It also made me want to quit my job, move to NYC and open a gallery…. Even though I have, like, zero experience

Also love NYC yes

I was also obsessed with how you wrote about not artists themselves, but the invisible people in the industry who have the power to define what (or who) is considered “great art”. Was that inspired by your experience in the publishing world??

I definitely am interested in the deliberately-invisibilised jobs in creative and media industries. And how the ugly parts of the creative sausage sort of come together. How things are positioned and described and priced and sold - and that's true of visual art and literature and music and screen and all of it.

The internet has FANTASTICALLY broadened the public appetite for more voices, and allowed those creative voices to bypass traditional (often racist, sexist, etc) gatekeepers. But the flipside of that great effect is the commodification of identity.

Lally, for example, is a white woman who trades off the identities of the artists who she represents and shows.

And Pat's company make money defending the status quo of - exclusively - dead white European men being the definition of greatness.

I kind of wanted to create these two very believable people who have fascinating jobs that lead them into moral swamps... and force the reader to make their own minds up.

Is the commodification of the artist’s identity something you struggle with as a writer? Cos there’s two opposing parts, right? The artist doing the work, and the self-promoter making sure people SEE that work

Yeah sure. I think every single creative struggles with some version or variation of this. For me personally, as a writer in particular, the thing that makes me good at my job is my ability to be by myself at a desk just thinking deeply and doing the work. Then to sell the work you've got to hit the road and be extremely exposed and public-facing. I feel envious of creatives who are part of a team - like a band, for example - who can share that with each other. But I'm sure they struggle with other unique things too.

The internet makes everything feel very fast. I've realised that (again) being offline this last month. It isn't conductive to originality or real-hard-deep thinking work.

I feel you — the promo side of being a writer makes me nauseous, but if you don’t do it… then what.

And being offline for a month sounds like heaven. (i realise we’re doing this interview over WhatsApp, so RIP.) Is that just social media, or a full digital detox? Is it hard?

Sometimes people (other creatives) say things to me like "Oh, I'm so bad at that social media stuff. It's so hard." And I'm like... yeah, yeah it is. But if I don't care about my art enough to share it with the world who the fuck else will? And also how will I pay my bills?? It's not easy! It's work!

And yeah this is the first thing I've done, really public-facing, since June 1.

But I'd be an idiot and an asshole to decline to accept an award lol.

Would need to be WAY richer and more successful to pull off some shenanigans like that.

Ahhhhhh, the reclusive artist living off a trust fund pipe dream. I know it well.

It is work!!! Speaking of: you’ve written four books, you have a newsletter, you run workshops, you occasionally pop up with a huge investigations that help change legislation (abusers hiding their money in super) or make everyone sit up and take notice (the Ellery piece). Do you ever… stop working? How do you switch off?

I do take weekends off these days. I didn't do that for the first... 6 years? It was a fucking grind. And I ground it. Now I'm sitting here, the main part of the tour for THE WORK is done, and I'm wondering what I want to prioritise moving forward.

What DO you want to prioritise?

I'm half-way through the first draft of my next novel. And it's going/coming strong. I'm trying to focus on that.

But I also need to finish my fucking PhD 🙃🙃 (the closest I've ever come to actually regretting something)

RIP and god speed

RIPMETHANKS

It's set in Antarctica.

I went there for a month last year for research.

Oh that rules so much

It's sort of a literary thriller, but also about family planning on a burning planet.

Okay so hyped for this

Litty Committee is our monthly book club series — so what are you reading atm / any recommendations?

Oooh yes! I'm going to Sri Lanka in September and the winner of this year's Women's Prize for Fiction is SO good

Also, Caoilinn Hughes - Irish author - is coming to Australia for her new book "The Alternatives" and I'll be interviewing her for it. She's phenomenal.

And final question — it’s a silly one, but we’re texting so why not:

What are your top three most used emojis right now?

🙃🧡💫

lol

🙃 is such a mood

Seems about right for my life right now

A little bit fucked? Loving! And magical.

🙃🧡💫