Fonds RC0181 - John B. Lee fonds

John Busteed Lee, educator, poet, and editor, was born on 24 November 1951 in Highgate, ON, son of George and Irene Lee. He received a B.A. in English at the University of Western Ontario, in 1974, followed by a B.Ed. in English and theatre arts in 1975 and an M.A. in Teaching English in 1985 at the same institution. Lee taught at Waterford District High School in Norfolk County from 1975 to 1987, at which time he made the decision to earn a living exclusively through writing, performing and teaching poetry.

A prolific writer, he is the author of over forty of books and chapbooks of poetry, including Pig Dance Dreams and Stella’s Journey. His poetry, which has appeared in over 500 publications, has earned Lee many grants and awards, most significant of which have been the CBC Tilden Award and the People’s Poetry Award (twice). He has also written children’s books, plays, short stories, reviews, a writer’s guide, and memoirs, and has edited numerous anthologies of poetry, including Smaller than God. In addition to writing and editing, Lee was writer-in-residence at Kitchener Public Library in 2001 and has given many public readings of his work and facilitated poetry workshops for school children. In 2005 he was named Poet Laureate of Brantford, ON in perpetuity. Lee is married to Cathy Jean Morden, and they have two sons, Dylan and Sean-Paul.