Julayne Lee is an adopted Asian American poet, writer, artivist, producer, and sometimes blogger. Inspired and empowered by the Asian Pacific Islander American (APIA) spoken word groups Mongrel and I Was Born with Two Tongues, she began writing as a means of survival. Never intending to share her work, she realized after reading it publicly that as writing had brought her healing, it could do the same for others.
She has read in Seoul, Boston, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Berkeley, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Julayne was selected for the 2017 Listen To Your Mother show in Burbank, CA. She has written for Korean Quarterly and her piece on the film Casa de los Babys was republished in Uri Shinmun, a multilingual publication based in the Netherlands. Her poetry has been published in Homeland Insecurities a chapbook fundraiser for the APIA Spoken Word and Poetry Summit, the O.K.A.Y. (Overseas Korean Artists e-Yearbook), #5, the 2017 City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Calendar and Cultural Guide, Cultural Weekly and Portside. Her guest blog posts have appeared on Land of Gazillion Adoptees, Slant Eye for the Round Eye and the Minneapolis–St. Paul StarTribune. Julayne received a Poets & Writers grant for the Association of Korean Adoptees—San Francisco (AKA-SF) 20th Anniversary Reading with Poets and Authors. With a passion to amplify marginalized voices, she has produced and hosted readings and workshops for writers of color including Our Voices: A Reading & Discussion with Adoptees of Color as part of Writ Large Press’s #90X90LA 2017. She has also spoken on adoption at symposiums and universities in Seoul and the US.
Julayne received her BS in Mathematics Education and has a Masters of Arts in Education. She is a co-founder and steering committee member of Adoptee Solidarity Korea—Los Angeles (ASK-LA) and served on the ASK (Seoul) steering committee. She is a Community Literature Initiative Scholar and a Las Dos Brujas Writers’ Workshop alum.