the gifts and challenges that bend us
About Bending Tree
Who is Bending Tree?
My name is Irene Lyla Lee. I am a writer, educator, and book artist based on unceded Lenapehoking – Brooklyn, New York. My fiction, journalism, and reviews have appeared in Documentary Magazine, Visitant, The Rumpus, Hyperallergic, and The Brooklyn Rail, among others. I am founder of the small press, ilylali, and co-founder of Oreades Press with Rachel TonThat and Boar Hair Books with Debo Mouloudji. I organize workshops, and accountability meetings with the Brooklyn Women’s Writing Group. I also edit for the group’s literary Magazine, Wild Garlic. I hold an MFA in Writing from Pratt Institute.
I was a kid who loved to write. When I was in eighth grade someone in my class looked at me sidelong and said with not an inch of understated judgment, “you’re the girl who writes for fun.” It was true. It was also a form of coping, but that’s a different story. Working with words has been a lifelong calling, but I have taken a circuitous route to get to where I am today. After graduating from The New School in 2012 I worked for six years as an educator, creating programming and teaching at the “I Have a Dream” Foundation. This time in my life, and the people who I worked with and served, showed me how incredibly valuable mentorships are, and helped me identify my aspiration to mentor people in the thing I love most: the simple and excruciating task of shaping stories and putting sentences together. So I went to the Pratt Institute graduate program in Writing. It took a year to gather myself and create Bending Tree, but I was also learning important skills about teaching literacy and writing to young people through private tutoring and homeschooling, as well as learning from the amazing women and non-binary folks who are members with the Brooklyn Women’s Writing Group. All of them have been fundamental as I learned about facilitating safe spaces, group organization, and helping to guide writers to finding their path, their voice, and feel intricately part of this community of people who love to write for fun.
Or, if you don’t love to write. I can help you too. I am no stranger to a reluctant muse. I have had the sincere honor to have worked with students of all ages, and on all projects, whether it be a novel, screenplay, short story, personal essay, grant, or just the basics of how to read. I have helped people succeed on a gambit of projects. So reach out for a consultation. The first session is always free.
“Field Notes” is a monthly teaching newsletter with projects, thoughts, and tips all about learning, teaching, and ecosystems:
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