Photo: Demelza Wong
Grace Yee
Grace Yee was born in British Hong Kong, grew up in Ōtautahi, Aotearoa New Zealand and now lives in Melbourne, on Wurundjeri land. Her poetry has been widely published and anthologised in Australia and internationally. Her awards include the Patricia Hackett Prize, the Peter Steele Poetry Award, a Creative Fellowship at the State Library Victoria, and grants from Creative Victoria and the Australia Council for the Arts. She has taught in the creative writing programs at Deakin University, and at the University of Melbourne, where she completed a PhD on settler Chinese women’s storytelling in Aotearoa New Zealand. Her debut collection Chinese Fish won the 2024 Victorian Prize for Literature, the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Poetry, and the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Her second collection, Joss: A History, was published by Giramondo in June 2025 and longlisted for the Ockham New Zealand Book Award for Poetry.
