John B. Lee

John B. Lee. Courtesy Ascent Aspirations.

John B. Lee
Born	1951 Highgate, Ontario, Canada
Nationality	Canadian
Occupation	Author

John Busteed Lee (born 1951) is a Canadian poet and prose author, who is the Poet Laureate of Brantford, Ontario.

Life

Youth

Lee was born in southwestern Ontario, and raised on a farm near the village of Highgate. He went to Ridgetown District High School, where he wrote some of his earliest poems and has been named to the RDHS Hall of Excellence along with other distinguished alumni.

He attended the University of Western Ontario, where he received an Honours B.A. in English, a B.Ed. and an M.A.T. in English.

Career

Lee is the author of 37 published books and 10 published chapbooks, and the editor of nearly 10 published anthologies. A popular performer of children's poems and songs, he has been a writer in residence at the University of Windsor, Kitchener Public Library, and Hillfield Strathallen private school. Lee has also been a visiting professor at University of Western Ontario, University of Windsor, and Canador College, and a guest speaker at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa and many universities throughout Canada and the United States.

He is also an honorary life member of the Canadian Poetry Association and the Ontario Poetry Society.

Recognition

In 2005, Lee was inducted as Poet Laureate of Brantford in perpetuity. The same year he received the distinction of being named an honorary life member of The Canadian Poetry Association.

In 2007 he was made a member of the Chancellor's Circle of the President's Club of McMaster University.

He is the recipient of over 60 prestigious international awards for his writing, including:

• winner of the $10,000 CBC Literary Award for Poetry.
• the only 2-time recipient of the People's Poetry Award.
• 2006 winner of the inaugural Souwesto Orison Writing Award (University of Windsor/Black Moss Press).
• 2007 winner of the Winston Collins Award for Best Canadian Poem.
• Poet Laureate of Norfolk County, 2010-2014

Publications

Poetry

• Poems Only A Dog Could Love. Applegarth Follies, 1976.
• Love Among the Tombstones. Dogwood Press, 1980.
• Fossils of the Twentieth Century. Vesta Publications, 1983.
• Hired Hands (poetry & prose). London, ON: Brick Books, 1986.
• Small Worlds. Vesta Publications, 1986.
• Rediscovered Sheep. London, ON: Brick Books, 1989.
• The Bad Philosophy of Good Cows. Windsor, ON: Black Moss Press, 1989.
• The Hockey Player Sonnets. Penumbra Press, 1991.
  • The Hockey Player Sonnets: Overtime edition. Ottawa: Penumbra Press, 2003.
• The Pig Dance Dreams. Windsor, ON: Black Moss Press, 1991.
• When Shaving Seems Like Suicide. Fredericton, NB: Goose Lane Editions, 1991.
• The Art of Walking Backwards. Windsor, ON: Black Moss Press, 1993.
• Variations on Herb. London, ON: Brick Books, 1993.
• All the Cats Are Gone. Ottawa: Penumbra Press, 1993.
• These Are the Days of Dogs and Horses. Windsor, ON: Black Moss Press, 1994.
• The Beatles Landed Laughing in New York. Windsor, ON: Black Moss Press, 1995.
• Tongues of the Children. Windsor, ON: Black Moss Press, 1996.
• Never Hand Me Anything if I Am Walking or Standing. Windsor, ON: Black Moss Press, 1997.
• Soldier's Heart.Windsor, ON: Black Moss Press, 1998.
• Stella's Journey (poetry & prose). Windsor, ON: Black Moss Press, 1999.
• The Half-Way Tree: Selected poems. Windsor, ON: Black Moss Press, 2001.
• In the Terrible Weather of Guns (documentary poetry & prose). Toronto, ON: Mansfield Press, 2002.
• Totally Unused Heart. Windsor, ON: Black Moss Press, 2003.
• Poems for the Pornographer's Daughter (poetry & prose). Windsor, ON: Black Moss Press, 2005.
• Godspeed (documentary poetry & prose). Windsor, ON: Black Moss Press, 2006.
• But Where Were the Horses of Evening (chapbook). Serengeti Press, 2007.
• The Place That We Keep After Leaving. Windsor, ON: Black Moss Press, 2008.
• Island on the Wind-Breathed Edge of the Sea. Hidden Brook Press, 2008.
• Being Human. Sanbun Publishing, 2010.
• Dressed in Dead Uncles. Windsor, ON: Black Moss Press, 2010.
• Let Us Be Silent Here. Sanbun Publishing, 2012.

Chapbooks

• To Kill a White Dog (documentary poem). London, ON: Brick Books, 1982.
• The Day Jane Fonda Came to Guelph. Whitby, ON: Ploughman Press, 1996.
• In a Language with No Word For Horses (documentary poems). Ottawa: above/ground press, 1997.
• The Echo of Your Words Has Reached Me. Hamilton, ON: Mekler & Deahl, 1998.
• An Almost Silent Drumming: The South Africa poems. Windsor, ON: Cranberry Tree Press, 2001.
• Thirty-Three Thousand Shades of Green. Lantzville, BC: Leaf Press, 2004.
• Though Their Joined Hearts Drummed Like Larks (documentary poetry). Kitchener, ON: Passion Among the Cacti Press, 2004.
• Bright Red Apples of the Dead. BC: Pooka Press, 2004.
• How Beautiful We Are. Windsor, ON: Black Moss Press, 2006.
• But Where Were the Horses of Evening. Serengeti Press, 2007.
• Let Light Try All the Doors. Rubicon Press, 2009.
• One Leaf in the Breath of the World. Beret Days Press, 2009.

Non-fiction

• What’s in a Name: The pursuit of George Peacock, namesake of Peacock Point (essay). Brantford, ON: Dogwood Press, 1996.
• Head Heart Hands Health: A History of 4H in Ontario. Peterborough, ON: Comrie Productions, 1994.
• Building Bicycles in the Dark: A practical guide to writing. Windsor, ON: Black Moss Press, 2001
• The Farm on the Hill He Calls Home (memoir). Windsor, ON: Black Moss Press, 2004.
• Left Hand Horses: Meditations on influence and the imagination. Windsor, ON: Black Moss Press, 2007.
• King Joe: A Matter of Treason; the life and times of Joseph Willcocks (1773-September 5, 1814). Heronwood Enterprises, 2010.

Juvenile

• Don't Be So Persnickety: The runaway sneezing poems, songs and riddles, of John B. Lee. Windsor, ON: Black Moss Press, 2000.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy John B. Lee.

Edited

• That Sign of Perfection: From Bandy Legs to Beer Legs: Ppoems and stories on the game of hockey (anthology). Windsor, ON: Black Moss Press, 1995.
• Losers First: Poems and stories on game and sport (anthology). Windsor, ON: Black Moss Press, 1999.
• I Want to Be the Poet of Your Kneecaps: Poems of quirky romance (anthology). Windsor, ON: Black Moss Press, 1999
• Following the Plough: Poems and stories on the land (anthology). Windsor, ON: Black Moss Press, 2000.
• Henry’s Creature: Poems and stories on the automobile (anthology co-edited with Roger Bell). Windsor, ON: Black Moss Press, 2000.
• Smaller Than God: Words of spiritual longing (anthology co-edited with Brother Paul Quenon). Windsor, ON: Black Moss Press, 2001.
• Body Language: a head-to-toe anthology. Windsor, ON: Black Moss Press, 2003.
• Witness: anthology of war poetry. Mississauga, ON: Serengeti Press, 2004.
• Bonjour Burgundy (anthology). Oakville, ON: Mosaic Press, 2008.
• Under the Weight of Heaven (anthology). Windsor, ON: Black Moss Press, 2008.
• An Unfinished War: War of 1812 poetry & prose. Windsor, ON: Black Moss Press, 2012.

John B. Lee reads from Poems Only a Dog Could Love (Brick Books)

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy John B. Lee.

See also

• List of Canadian poets

External links

Poems

• John B. Lee at Canadian Poetry Online (6 poems)
• John B. Lee interview & 4 poems at London Open Mics
• Writing & Poetry

Audio / video

• John B. Lee at YouTube

Books

• John B. Lee at Amazon.com

About

• John B. Lee at Penumbra Press
• John B. Lee at poets.ca
• John B. Lee at the Ontario Poetry Society
• John B. Lee Official website