About Lee

The Editor: My unplanned career as an editor began in the late 90s when I volunteered to maintain the Writers’ Federation of New Brunswick’s website. Soon I was editor of NB Ink, WFNB’s quarterly newsletter, a job I would have for the better part of a dozen years and during which I oversaw the newsletter’s evolution from a small pamphlet to a glossy, 24-page magazine-style newsletter.

I found I had a facility for editing, for reducing overlong phrasing and making what was blurry sparkle. More and more I was asked to look at other writers’ fiction, non fiction, poetry. Eventually I began to give writing and editing workshops in addition to running a small business – Elbow Press – designing and producing books and chapbooks for local authors.

My editing experience expanded in 2006 when I created the literary magazine Galleon, which produced two issues before going on hiatus for eight years and resuming again in 2014. Why did Galleon go on hiatus? In 2009 I became executive director of WFNB, a busy, eye-opening, and highly rewarding position (all writers all the time) which I left in late 2013 to pursue my neglected writing and editing interests.

Since then I’ve carved out a comfortable niche here on the Canadian east coast, often working with first-time authors (from 5 years old to… well, older than 5) and regularly taking projects from conception to publication to marketing. These commonly are self-publishing projects, but I do love working with more established authors, especially on short fiction.

I edit all-genres of fiction and non-fiction, and have worked on over a dozen poetry manuscripts. I love content editing, helping give shape to a book, and teaching all the tidbits that make prose really sing. I’m a hands-on editor, one who gives clear, detailed advice and copious notes (which I’ve been told can be quite humorous).

A list (not complete) of some of my clients’ works can be found on my Reedsy page, or by scanning through my Testimonials section.

The Writer: As a writer of short fiction, I have published extensively in literary journals in Canada and in the US, as well as appearing in five anthologies. For longer fiction, I have three books, an experimental half-prose half-poetry (half something else entirely) novel published with Broken Jaw Press in 2007, in 2017 a chapbook with Frog Hollow Press, and in 2022 the novel Apastoral: A Mistopia with Corona\Samizdat Press.

I have received multiple creative writing grants from the province of New Brunswick (artsnb) and the Canada Council for the Arts, and in 2014 I was awarded a residency at the Banff Writers Studio. In 2018 I won the David Adams Richards Prize for my (currently) ongoing short story manuscript.

A fact: I live in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada, with my partner Cindy and Jugie (“don’t call me Charlie”) the cat.

Jugie