image of person or book cover 1828395405767313155.jpg
y separately published work icon Eggshell Skull single work   autobiography  
Issue Details: First known date: 2018... 2018 Eggshell Skull
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'EGGSHELL SKULL: A well-established legal doctrine that a defendant must 'take their victim as they find them'. If a single punch kills someone because of their thin skull, that victim's weakness cannot mitigate the seriousness of the crime.

'But what if it also works the other way? What if a defendant on trial for sexual crimes has to accept his 'victim' as she comes: a strong, determined accuser who knows the legal system, who will not back down until justice is done?

'Bri Lee began her first day of work at the Queensland District Court as a bright-eyed judge's associate. Two years later she was back as the complainant in her own case.

'This is the story of Bri's journey through the Australian legal system; first as the daughter of a policeman, then as a law student, and finally as a judge's associate in both metropolitan and regional Queensland -- where justice can look very different, especially for women. The injustice Bri witnessed, mourned and raged over every day finally forced her to confront her own personal history, one she'd vowed never to tell. And this is how, after years of struggle, she found herself on the other side of the courtroom, telling her story.

'Bri Lee has written a fierce and eloquent memoir that addresses both her own reckoning with the past as well as with the stories around her, to speak the truth with wit, empathy and unflinching courage. Eggshell Skull is a haunting appraisal of modern Australia from a new and essential voice.' (Source: Publisher's blurb)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Crows Nest, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Allen and Unwin , 2018 .
      image of person or book cover 1828395405767313155.jpg
      Extent: 368 p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Published July 2018.

      ISBN: 9781760295776 (pbk)
Alternative title: 계란껍질 두개골 원칙 : 말하고 싸우고 연대하기 위해 법정에 선 성폭력 생존자의 사법 투쟁기
Language: Korean
    • Seoul,
      c
      South Korea,
      c
      Korea, East Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
      :
      Karakal ,
      2020 .
      image of person or book cover 738947432570915951.png
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 501p.p.
      ISBN: 9791196591342, 9789791196598, 9791196591

Other Formats

  • Dyslexic edition.
  • Large print.
  • Sound recording.

Works about this Work

How Can Publishers Support the Authors of Trauma Memoirs, as They Unpack Their Pain for the Public? New Research Investigates Kylie Cardell , Christiana Harous , 2023 single work column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 16 February 2023;
Readers Are Hungry for Stories about Trauma. But What Happens to the Authors? Imogen Dewey , 2022 single work column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 19 November 2022;
Brittany Higgins’ Memoir Will Join a Powerful Australian Collection Reclaiming Women’s Stories of Trauma. Here Are Four Marina Deller , 2021 single work review
— Appears in: The Conversation , 15 April 2021;

— Review of Eggshell Skull Bri Lee , 2018 single work autobiography ; No Matter Our Wreckage Gemma Carey , 2020 single work autobiography ; The Anti Cool Girl Rosie Waterland , 2015 single work autobiography ; The Girls : A Memoir of Family, Grief and Sexuality Chloe Higgins , 2019 single work autobiography

'Brittany Higgins has signed a book deal with Penguin Random House Australia. Not just any book — a memoir.'

y separately published work icon Bri Lee Astrid Edwards (interviewer), 2020 18540431 2020 single work interview podcast

'Bri Lee is a writer and editor with a career to watch.

'Her first book, Eggshell Skull, was published in 2018. It was shortlisted for the 2019 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards in non-fiction, winning the 2019 People's Choice Award, and also won the 2018 People's Choice at the Nib Awards for research in writing, and the 2019 ABIA for Biography of the Year. Eggshell Skull was also shortlisted for the 2019 Indie Book Awards and longlisted for the 2019 Stella Prize.

'Her second work, Beauty, is a meditation on beauty and body image. It was published in 2019, and will be followed by Brains in 2020.

'Bri was the Founding Editor of the quarterly print periodical Hot Chicks with Big Brains, commissioning and publishing diverse non-fiction about women and their work from 2015 to 2018.

'Bri's shorter pieces have been published in The Monthly, Harper's Bazaar Australia, The Saturday Paper, Crikey, The Guardian, Griffith Review, i-D, VAULT Art Magazine, and elsewhere. She regularly appears on The Drum on ABC TV, various ABC Radio National programs, and often gives talks on writing, law, feminism, fashion, pop culture, and art.

'In 2016 Bri was the recipient of the inaugural Kat Muscat Fellowship, and in 2017 was one of Griffith Review's Queensland writing fellows. She has received numerous other fellowships, residencies, and mentorships, most recently the 2018 Premier's Young Publishers and Writers Award at the Queensland Literary Awards.'

Source: The Garret.

Eyes Are Singing Out : Australia’s Justice System and the Importance of Speaking Up Riley Byrne , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Women's Book Review , vol. 29 no. 1 2019; (p. 21-26)

— Review of Eggshell Skull Bri Lee , 2018 single work autobiography
'It took me the first thirty pages of Bri Lee’s Eggshell Skull to connect the jittery judge’s associate described in its opening chapter with the self-possessed author I had seen moderating an event at Avid Reader in Brisbane’s West End last year. I hadn’t even realised that the author of the book was Australian. But while Google quickly confirmed this, it would have been difficult to get much further into Lee’s memoir without being struck by the locality of it and its author.' (Introduction)
y separately published work icon [Review] Eggshell Skull Astrid Edwards , Melbourne : Bad Producer Productions , 2018 14402471 2018 single work review
— Review of Eggshell Skull Bri Lee , 2018 single work autobiography

'Bri Lee’s Eggshell Skull is an answer to anyone who ever asks why a woman (or less often, a man) doesn’t report sexual abuse or rape, or doesn’t pursue the matter through the legal system even if they do.'  (Introduction)

Eyes Are Singing Out : Australia’s Justice System and the Importance of Speaking Up Riley Byrne , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Women's Book Review , vol. 29 no. 1 2019; (p. 21-26)

— Review of Eggshell Skull Bri Lee , 2018 single work autobiography
'It took me the first thirty pages of Bri Lee’s Eggshell Skull to connect the jittery judge’s associate described in its opening chapter with the self-possessed author I had seen moderating an event at Avid Reader in Brisbane’s West End last year. I hadn’t even realised that the author of the book was Australian. But while Google quickly confirmed this, it would have been difficult to get much further into Lee’s memoir without being struck by the locality of it and its author.' (Introduction)
Brittany Higgins’ Memoir Will Join a Powerful Australian Collection Reclaiming Women’s Stories of Trauma. Here Are Four Marina Deller , 2021 single work review
— Appears in: The Conversation , 15 April 2021;

— Review of Eggshell Skull Bri Lee , 2018 single work autobiography ; No Matter Our Wreckage Gemma Carey , 2020 single work autobiography ; The Anti Cool Girl Rosie Waterland , 2015 single work autobiography ; The Girls : A Memoir of Family, Grief and Sexuality Chloe Higgins , 2019 single work autobiography

'Brittany Higgins has signed a book deal with Penguin Random House Australia. Not just any book — a memoir.'

Bri Lee : Eggshell Skull: A Memoir about Standing up, Speaking Out and Fighting Back 2018 single work essay
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , May 2018;

'Writing with raw energy and cool intelligence, in Eggshell Skull Bri Lee reminds us of the prevalence of abuse and injustice in our communities.' (Introduction)

Burden of Proof : Bri Lee’s Eggshell Skull Sonia Nair , 2018 single work essay
— Appears in: Kill Your Darlings [Online] , June 2018;

'The culmination of a journey through the courts as both a judge’s associate and a complainant, Bri Lee’s debut memoir is a damning look at the deficiencies of the legal system and an exploration of what justice looks like for sexual abuse survivors.' (Introduction)

Bri Lee : Eggshell Skull CR , 2018 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 16-22 June 2018;

'This memoir is named for the legal premise that “a victim must be accepted for who they are individually, regardless of where their strengths and weaknesses place them on a spectrum of human normality. If you strike a person whose skull happens to be as thin as an eggshell, and they break their head open and die, you can’t claim that they were not a ‘regular’ person. Full criminal liability – and responsibility – cannot be avoided because a victim is ‘weak’.”'  (Introduction)

Cross-Stitch : Sam George-Allen and Bri Lee Madeline Gray , 2019 single work essay
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , July 2019;
How We Keep Our Pens Mighty Bri Lee , 2019 single work essay
— Appears in: Meanjin , Summer vol. 78 no. 4 2019; (p. 92-99)

'I travel around this beautiful country speaking about issues of law and sexual violence, and I cannot do so without acknowledging that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are three times as likely as non-Indigenous women to have experienced violence; that despite Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders over the age of 18 making up around 2 per cent of our population, they represent 28 per cent of total prisoner population; that we are seeing absolutely no improvements in the rates of Aboriginal deaths in custody and that half of those deaths are of prisoners not even found guilty.'(Introduction)

Last amended 22 Mar 2021 16:38:48
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X