Writer

Donna Lee is a Meanjin based writer who started her working life when smoking in the workplace was completely normal, as were tea ladies delivering caffeine directly to the desk along with Iced VoVos and Scotch Finger biscuits.

She has worked across a diverse range of industries, forever drawn to the writing opportunities within the most mundane of analyst and finance roles. She has written print and online media copy, developed marketing materials, and national tender response projects. She has worked as a swimming teacher and coach developing and implementing swimming and water safety programs within Queensland primary schools.

In 2022 she prioritised her writing, forced herself to be brave, and let others read her work. In 2023 She was offered a place in Faber Academy’s, Writing a Novel program and has read her work at Avid Reader’s literary salon. In 2024 she was offered a ten-week Fishbowl Writing residency with Queensland Writer’s Centre and read at Brisbane Writer’s Festival.

Her debut book, Sonder, explores isolation and the fleeting nature of connection. It celebrates flawed and floundering characters, giving voice to their stories with the care and affection that comes from lived experience. An excerpt was published in the 2024 Faber Anthology.

When not at her desk wrestling words onto the page, she runs her own business restoring and repurposing unloved furniture destined for landfill. A keen photographer, she is drawn to the storytelling elements of street photography her work has been featured by Brisbane Council, Canon, and numerous corporate clients across multiple media platforms.

She lives in a quirky sixties weatherboard house she is continually renovating with her lovely husband, creative adult children and canine muse. Their home is filled with music, art, tasty food and has shelves of books in almost every room.