MARGARET LEE
Margaret Lee is a poet, scholar, fiber artist, watercolor sketcher, and aspiring naturalist in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Her poetry collection, Sappho Prompts with Finishing Line Press, uses Sappho’s fragmentary lines as prompts for new poems exploring the myths, desires, and longings that characterize Sappho’s ancient songs. Margaret’s previous chapbooks with Finishing Line Press include Someone Else’s Earth (2021), Sagebrush Songs (2022), Oklahoma Summer (2023), and Orange Persephone (2025). Her poems also appear in From Behind the Mask, (Paperback-Press 2020), Echoes of Tradition: Indigenous Orientation to Community, Time, and Land (Tulsa NightWriters 2024), The Atlanta Review, eMerge Magazine, and Pangyrus. Her poetry book reviews appear in American Poetry Review, The Compulsive Reader, and the Taos Journal of Poetry. Margaret earned a B.A. in History from Seattle University, Seattle, WA; an M.Div. from Phillips Theological Seminary, Tulsa, OK; and a Th.D. from the Melbourne College of Divinity, Melbourne, Australia. Her academic research and publications focus on the ancient Greek language and the history and culture of the ancient world.
CREDENTIALS
B.A. History, Seattle University, Seattle, WA
M. Div., Phillips Theological Seminary, Tulsa, OK
Th.D., Melbourne College of Divinity, Melbourne, Australia
WHY I WRITE
I write to understand myself and the world. It’s the way I think. As a poet, I find my subjects in the prairies of Oklahoma, deserts and mountains of northern New Mexico, rocky shores of the Oregon coast, and the wild terrain of inner landscapes. I love writing about what I read, appreciating the writing of others, and reflecting on the writing craft.
I have long cultivated a fascination with the history, literature, and culture of the ancient world. My full-length poetry collection, Sappho Prompts (Finishing Line 2026), develops poems from surviving fragments of the ancient Greek poet, Sappho, based on my own translations from the Greek. The book builds on my first poetry chapbook, Someone Else’s Earth (Finishing Line 2021). Sappho Prompts also features extensive translation notes, an essay introducing Sappho and her place in Greek literature, and original artwork on the cover.
My chapbook, Sagebrush Songs (Finishing Line 2022), celebrates the landscapes of the Taos plateau and Sangre de Cristo Mountains in Northern New Mexico. Oklahoma Summer (Finishing Line 2023) chronicles my love and concern for the state in which I live, whose history bears the marks of environmental threats, racial violence, and the removal of Native peoples from their ancestral lands, as well as its stunning natural beauty. In Orange Persephone (Finishing Line 2025), I pursue a painful road to recovery from a series of personal traumas.
My poems have also appeared in From Behind the Mask (Paperback-Press 2020), an anthology from the throes of global pandemic; Echoes of Tradition: Indigenous Orientation to Community, Time, and Land (Tulsa NightWriters 2024), an anthology centering the continuing aftermath of the landmark Supreme Court case, McGirt v. Oklahoma; The Atlanta Review, eMerge Magazine, and Pangyrus. My book reviews have appeared in the Taos Journal of Poetry and The Compulsive Reader.
PUBLICATIONS
I am honored to be published through various platforms and publications. You can find a complete list of these below.
Poetry Collections
Lee, Margaret. 2026. Sappho Prompts. Finishing Line.
Chapbooks
2021. Someone Else’s Earth. Finishing Line.
2022. Sagebrush Songs. Finishing Line.
2023. Oklahoma Summer. Finishing Line.
2025. Orange Persephone. Finishing Line.
Individual Poems
2023. “Iokolpos.” Atlanta Review, Fall/Winter: 89.
2024. “Sightings.” Pangyrus
2025. “Water Song for Sappho.” The Paddock Review, October 8.
2026. “Inside the Milky Way.” eMerge Magazine, March.
2026. “When I was a boy.” eMerge Magazine, July.
2026. “Windswept.” eMerge Magazine, May.
Anthologized Poems
2020. “Lost in a Pandemic Blog” and “Snagged.” In Tulsa NightWriters From Behind the Mask. Paperback Press.
2024. “By the Creek,” “Heartland,” and “Muskogee Reservation.” In Kepros, Madeleine, and Aubrey Green, eds. Echoes of Tradition: An Anthology. Tulsa NightWriters.
Book Reviews
2026. “Into the Hush: A Review.” American Poetry Review, forthcoming.
2025. “Creative Imagination: Two Books by Leslie Ullman.” The Compulsive Reader, December 11.
2025. “Goat, Goddess, Moon: A Review.” Taos Journal of Poetry, no. 15 (September).
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Academic
Dean, Margaret E. 1996. “The Grammar of Sound in Greek Texts: Toward a Method of Mapping the Echoes of Speech in Writing.” Australian Biblical Review 44: 53–70.
1996. “Review of ‘God-With-Us: The Dominant Perspective in Matthew’s Story and Other Essays,’ by Andries van Aarde.” Journal of Biblical Literature 115 (1): 143.
1998. “Textured Criticism.” Journal for the Study of the New Testament, no. 70 (June): 79.
Lee, Margaret E. 2005. “A Method for Sound Analysis in Hellenistic Greek: The Sermon on the Mount as a Test Case.” D.Theol. Thesis, Melbourne College of Divinity.
2007. “Performing the Gospel: Orality, Memory, and Mark: Essays Dedicated to Werner Kelber.” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 69 (4): 861–63.
2010a. “How Performance Changed My (Scholarly) Life.” Currents in Theology and Mission 37 (4): 304–11.
2010b. “Matthew: The Musical.” Currents in Theology and Mission 37 (6): 479–87.
2013. “Melody in Manuscript: The Birth Narrative in the Gospel of Matthew.” In Testimony, Witness, Authority: The Politics and Poetics of Experience, edited by Tom Clark, Tara Mokhtari, and Sasha Henriss-Anderssen. Cambridge Scholars.
2014. “Sound and Structure in the Gospel of Matthew.” In From Text to Performance: Narrative and Performance Criticisms in Dialogue and Debate, edited by Kelly R. Iverson, vol. 10. Biblical Performance Criticism. Wipf and Stock.
2017a. “Colon.” In Dictionary of the Bible and Ancient Media, edited by Tom Thatcher. Bloomsbury T&T Clark.
2017b. “Sound Mapping.” In Dictionary of the Bible and Ancient Media, edited by Tom Thatcher. Bloomsbury T&T Clark.
2018. “Sound Mapping Reassessed.” In Sound Matters: New Testament Studies in Sound Mapping, edited by Margaret E. Lee. Cascade Books.
2022. “Sound, Memory, and the Oral Style.” In The Forgotten Compass: Marcel Jousse and the Exploration of the Oral World, edited by Bruce Chilton and Werner H. Kelber. Biblical Performance Criticism. Cascade Books.
Lee, Margaret Ellen, and Bernard Brandon Scott. 2009. Sound Mapping the New Testament. Polebridge Press.
2022. Sound Mapping the New Testament, Second Edition. Cascade Books.
Lee, Margaret E., ed. 2018. Sound Matters: New Testament Studies in Sound Mapping. Vol. 16. Biblical Performance Criticism. Cascade Books.
Scott, Bernard Brandon, and Margaret E. Dean. 1996. “A Sound Map of the Sermon on the Mount.” In Treasures Old and New: Recent Contributions to Matthean Studies, edited by David Bauer and Mark Allan Powell. Scholars Press.
Scott, Bernard Brandon, Margaret E. Dean, Kristin Sparks, and Frances LaZar. 1993. Reading New Testament Greek: Complete Word Lists and Reader’s Guide. Hendrickson.
Higher Education Focus
David, Kevin M., Margaret E. Lee, John D. Bruce, et al. 2015. “Barriers to Success Predict Fall-to-Fall Persistence and Overall GPA among Community College Students.” Journal of Applied Research in Community Colleges 21 (1): 5–13.
David, Kevin, and Margaret Lee. 2013. “Developmental Education and Student Success: TCC and Complete College America.” Celebrate Learning 4 (2): 10–11.