He was raised in West Texas and is a graduate of Washington and Lee University.

Over the past 35 years, David Lee has been writing unique narrative poems in the voices of the people of the rural southwest. In 1997, he was named Utah's first poet laureate, and is the author of fifteen volumes of poetry, including So Quietly the Earth, Driving & Drinking, and News from Down to the Café. A former seminary candidate, semi-pro baseball player, and hog farmer, he has a Ph.D. concentration in John Milton and taught at Southern Utah University for three decades. His 2004 book So Quietly the Earth was among the 25 books chosen for the New York Public Library's annual "Books to Remember" list.

Poetry

• Porcine Legacy (Copper Canyon Press, 1974)
• Shadow Weaver (Brooding Heron Press, 1984)
• (reprint 2004)
• Day’s Work (Copper Canyon Press, 1990)
• Paragonah Canyon (Brooding Heron Press, 1990)
• My Town (Copper Canyon Press, 1995)
• Covenants (with William Kloefkorn) (Spoon River Poetry Press, 1996)
• Wayburne Pig (Brooding Heron Press, 1997)
• The Fish (Wood Works Press, 1997)
• Twenty-one Gun Salute (Grey Spider Press, 1999)
• David Lee: A listener’s Guide’’ (Copper Canyon Press, 1999)
• Incident at Thompson Slough (Wood Works Press, 2002)
• So Quietly the Earth (Copper Canyon Press, 2004)