In 2005 John B. Lee was inducted as Poet Laureate of Brantford in perpetuity. In 2007 he was made a member of the Chancellor's Circle of the President's Club of McMaster University and named first recipient of the Souwesto Award for his contribution to literature in his home region of Southwestern Ontario. In 2011 he was appointed Poet Laureate of Norfolk County (2011—14) and in 2015 Honourary Poet Laureate of Norfolk County for life.
He is winner of the $10,000 CBC Literary Award for Poetry, the only two—time recipient of the People's Poetry Award, and 2006 winner of the inaugural Souwesto Orison Writing Award (University of Windsor). In 2007 he was named winner of the Winston Collins Award for Best Canadian Poem, an award he won again in 2012. He has received letters of praise from Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Australian poet Les Murray, and Senator Romeo Dallaire. Called "the greatest living poet in English," by poet George Whipple, he lives in Port Dover, Ontario where he works as a full time author.