JOHN ROBERT LEE, a poet, preacher, and retired teacher and librarian, was born in 1948 in the Caribbean Island nation of Saint Lucia. In 1969, he enrolled in the arts degree program at the University of the West Indies (UWI) at Cave Hill, Barbados, where he studied English and French Literature, including Caribbean Literature. He put his academic studies on hold to participate in theatrical and other literary pursuits exploding across the Caribbean during the 1970s. He completed his degree program at the UWI Mona campus in Jamaica in the early 1980s.
Lee is the author of five collections of poetry:
• Elemental: New and Selected Poems (2008)
• Collected Poems 1975-2015 (2017)
• Pierrot (2020)
• Belmont Portfolio (2023) and
• After Poems, Psalms (2025)
His poems are included in several international anthologies and periodicals, including The Penguin Book of Caribbean Verse, The Oxford Book of Caribbean Verse, Poetry Wales, Small Axe, and The Missing Slate. He edited Roseau Valley and Other Poems (2003), a Saint Lucian anthology of poetry and art spanning fifty years. Together with poet Kendel Hippolyte, he compiled and edited Saint Lucian Literature and Theatre: An Anthology of Reviews (2006). For many years, he also produced and presented radio and television programs in Saint Lucia.
Lee has received the Saint Lucia Medal of Merit (Gold) for his contribution to the development of Saint Lucian arts and culture.
Ordained as an Elder of Calvary Baptist Church in 1997, Elder Lee does not preach as much as he once did but teaches the Adult Sunday School Class at his Community Baptist Church. Father of three children, he lives with his wife in Saint Lucia.
Learn more at Peepal Tree Press Ltd, UK
Photo Credit: Tara Lucien
