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James Ryan Lee
College of Arts and Sciences
College of Arts and Sciences
Adjunct, English
jlee@andersonuniversity.edu
No office location
Academic Background
I received an M.F.A. from the University of California, Irvine, where I studied under poets James McMichael and Michael Ryan. My poems have appeared in The Minnesota Review, Juked, Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, Ordained Servant, Christianity and Literature, and Reformed Journal. Currently, I am at work on a manuscript of poems tentatively title, “Cheating the House.” I live in Taylors, SC with my wife and two children. Together, we are members of Covenant Community Orthodox Presbyterian Church.
B.A. in English, University of California, Irvine
M.F.A. in Creative Writing (Poetry), University of California, Irvine
Fast Facts
In all my classes, I encourage students to reflect on their own processes of reading and writing in ways that culminate in specific and surprising ways. My assignments are geared with the purpose of facilitating the initial stages of inquiry, enlisting students to employ critical concepts and consider analytic paradigms that, within the scope of the class, nonetheless push beyond easy conclusions and assumptions. My students perform readings and writings, that is, they demonstrate their ability to summarize, paraphrase, and analyze texts using specific literary tools, thus rehearsing the grammar and logic that undergirds all expositional and argumentative writing. Recording the drama of what happened, reporting the narrative of what happened, generalizing along the lines of what happens, and theorizing by presenting an argument of what has, will, or may happen, my students’ engagement forms along lines of close reading and directed writing so that the consolidation of new ideas is nothing less than the student writer’s growing awareness of the surplus and range of material at their disposal. This awareness is surprising but indispensable.
The mission of Anderson University relates specifically to our shared Christian mission in that it hinges on our belief in God. More than belief, the Father has, by his own goodwill, sent the Son to accomplish redemption on our behalf. Having completed his work by making atonement for our sins, Christ gives the Holy Spirit as the earnest pledge of our joint inheritance. The Father’s love affectively establishes the domain; here, the origin, subsistence, and conjunction of union with God takes the shape of Christ; this union locates all of the Christian life in Christ himself.
Creative Writing, Poetry
“5th Commandment”, Reformed Journal, November 2024.
https://reformedjournal.com/2024/11/05/5th-commandment/
after “Audubon: A Vision”, Ordained Servant, April 2024.
https://opc.org/os.html?article_id=1119
“Roller Skating”, Aethlon: The Journal of Sport Literature, XL:2, Spring/Summer 2023.
“The queen is the lodestar, a said body in light of…”, from “Bee Suit: Spring Chores with Grandfather”, ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, 30:1, Spring 2023.
https://academic.oup.com/isle/article-abstract/30/1/237/6355340?redirectedFrom=fulltext
“Tending bees is a posture, a position, my grandfather says…”, from “Bee Suit: Spring Chores with Grandfather”, ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, 30:1, Spring 2023.
“Male drones project so much strength which disappears…”, from “Bee Suit: Spring Chores with Grandfather”, ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, 30:1, Spring 2023.
“I put on the crown of my hood, the veil…”, from “Bee Suit: Spring Chores with Grandfather”, ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature in Environment, 30:1, Spring 2023.
“Regeneration”, Ordained Servant, February 2023.
https://www.opc.org/os.html?article_id=1024
“He points out marble-sized holes…”, from “Bee Suit: Spring Chores with Grandfather”, republished by Duke University Press for National Poetry Month, April 2022.
“Against Sin”, Ordained Servant, February 2022.
“He points out marble-sized holes…”, from “Bee Suit: Spring Chores with Grandfather”, The Minnesota Review, volume 96, May 2021.
“I only seem to be growing more vigorous…”, from “Bee Suit: Spring Chores with Grandfather”, Juked, August 2020.
http://www.juked.com/2020/08/james-lee-from-bee-suit-spring-chores-with-grandfather.asp
“The bees suffocate the queen…”, from “Bee Suit: Spring Chores with Grandfather”, Juked, August 2020.
“Having swarmed, thousands of bees settle…”, from “Bee Suit: Spring Chores with Grandfather”, Juked, August 2020.
“The same hyper-attenuated rage…”, from “Bee Suit: Spring Chores with Grandfather”, Juked, August 2020.
“Bee Suit: Spring Chores with Grandfather”, ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, 26:2, Spring 2019.
“Bonfire”, The Ordained Servant, August/September 2018.
“Sons and Daughters”, Christianity and Literature, 67:2, March 2018.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0148333117722033
“Stones”, The Ordained Servant, April 2017.
