Our inaugural First Nations Emerging Critic is the multi-talented and super-deadly Carissa Lee: poet, actor, critic and Instagram queen.
Carissa Lee is a Wemba Wemba actor and writer based in Melbourne. A Flinders Drama Centre graduate, she completed an editing traineeship through the Black and Write! Indigenous Writing and Editing Program, which led to her role as the ATSI Writers Program Coordinator at the SA Writers Centre in Adelaide.
Since relocating to Melbourne she has been a freelance writer, while undertaking her PhD in Indigenous theatre and working as a Research Assistant through the University of Melbourne. Carissa’s work has featured in publications such as LIP Mag, Book Riot, Melbourne Writers Festival, Conversation Media, and Red Room Poetry. These pieces have varied in styles and form, from book reviews, artist profiles, event reviews, poetry and personal reflection articles. During her career as a performer, Carissa has performed with major theatre ensembles such as Melbourne Theatre Company, the Malthouse Theatre and State Theatre Company of South Australia.
You may have already encountered her incognito: she’s been secretly helping with our Twitter and has singlehandedly launched our Instagram. To see why we’re so excited to have her on board, you can check out Carissa’s first long-form essay for Witness, on intersectionality and Indigenous theatre, and listen to the Witness Podcast, in which she explains why Indigenous criticism is so important to the discussion of Australian theatre.
