SKY Lee (1952 -)

• Something About SKY Lee

Born in 1952 at Port Alberni in British Columbia, SKY Lee prefers her name to be capitalized while her real name is Sharon Kun Yung Lee.  As a Chinese Canadian, in an interview, she associates her works with her background, which was a minority in a community where she was left with few chances of exploring out of her household because of her identity, her racial status and social position.  Starting from a close siblinghood, Lee reflected how she was very much attached to the family in which not merely herself and her siblings were confined but her parents, particular her mother, who was labored by childbirth of one after another, were trapped in poverty-ridden situation in the early years.  In a word, she struggled to surpass the enclosed family where her parents endeavor to protect all their children.  Lee received her bachelor degree in Fine Arts from University of British Columbia and a diploma of Nursing from Douglas College.  Before she published her debut of Disappearing Moon Caf³ in 1990, she made illustration for Paul Yee's Teach Me To Fly, Skyfighter! when she was working for the Mazara Magazine.  Her works have been published in various periodicals and selected to be the content of several anthologies.  Lee is recognized as a prominent lesbian feminist writers as a result of her fictions and stories encouraging women to speak out for themselves.  After living in Vancouver for many years, she now resides in Montreal, Quebec, actively engaged in Asian Canadian Workshops.

• References:

"Sky Lee talks to C. Allyson Lee: Is there a mind without media any more?" Canadian Women Writing Fiction.  Ed. Mickey Pearlman.  UP of Mississippi P, 1993: 382-403.

Jin Guo: Voices of Chinese Canadian Women.  Toronto: The Women's Book Committee, Chinese Canadian National Council, 1992: 91-97.