John Barrett Lee

Award-winning Welsh short fiction writer based in Saigon. Teacher and dad. Published by @FairlightBooks, @Panorama_J, @fffict.

[John Barrett Lee @johnbarrettlee]

Help needed!
I’ve written a collection of 16 realist short stories rooted in Wales. Several stories published in journals so far, including prize winners and shortlistings.
I’m unagented and unsure where literary short story collections even go now. Would welcome recommendations from people who know the small-press landscape.
Feel a bit like giving up.

[John Barrett Lee @johnbarrettlee]

@JosephRaup A piece of domestic realism about old lovers reconnecting after many years apart.

[John Barrett Lee @johnbarrettlee]

Some rejections are classier than others.

[John Barrett Lee @johnbarrettlee]

@starbucksgirly Rare for me too. The dry spells, on the other hand...

[John Barrett Lee @johnbarrettlee]

@Marketigbooking I know the feeling. Hang in there.

[John Barrett Lee @johnbarrettlee]

@BeckyLTuch That's really shitty. That publication is going on the blacklist.

[John Barrett Lee @johnbarrettlee]

@exQUIZitely All of their games looked expensive, if that makes sense. The graphics had weight.

[John Barrett Lee @johnbarrettlee]

@exQUIZitely Street Fighter 2, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Power Drift, Midnight Resistance, Raiden 2.

[John Barrett Lee @johnbarrettlee]

The sticker feels weirdly smug. It states the bloody obvious while assuming a position of virtue above both the author and reader. Of course old books reflect the attitudes of their time. Why wouldn't they? Most books do, unless they're especially radical. The moral verdict "wrong then and wrong now" tells us less about the book and more about the institution that put it there. Ironically, the sticker is a product of its own cultural moment as much as the book is.

[John Barrett Lee @johnbarrettlee]

@AlastairTanJY It can be useful for research. For instance, I couldn't remember the words and order of service in a Church of England funeral for one story, and it helped with that.

[John Barrett Lee @johnbarrettlee]

"Quiet Enough to Listen" remains one of my favourite stories I've written. Delighted it won the Ironclad Creative Short Story Competition. The anthology, "Reserved," will be out in print and on Kindle Unlimited later this month.
#amwriting #amquerying #writingcommunity

[John Barrett Lee @johnbarrettlee]

Delighted that "Quiet Enough to Listen", set in sleepy Kampot, has won the Ironclad Creative Short Story Competition. Ironclad do excellent work supporting neurodivergent writers.
“I could choose to be present, I thought — not to hold but to notice.”
#ShortFiction #AmWriting #WritingCommunity

[John Barrett Lee @johnbarrettlee]

“I know how much he loved you. Please, Nanny. Let me play it for him, at least.”

In a silent house on Priory Road, thirteen-year-old Alfie discovers that some doors stay locked even after the key is found.

Winner of the Exeter Writers Short Story Competition 2026.
https://t.co/x7Tkxea6yl

[John Barrett Lee @johnbarrettlee]

Delighted to share that I've won the Exeter Writers Short Story Competition 2026 with A House Without Song.

The story will be published on the Exeter Writers website soon.

https://t.co/PVVoTf93SH

#WritingCommunity #ShortStory #ShortFiction #AmWriting

[John Barrett Lee @johnbarrettlee]

@brockpierson I got this for Christmas 1991 bundles with the NES. It was the only game I had for a while, and I played it obsessively until I completed it. I still think about it, and the opening music takes me straight back there.

[John Barrett Lee @johnbarrettlee]

@pambizbuster I live overseas, but my impression is that if I moved back, I would only eat out for: proper wood oven baked pizza, fish n chips (at a chippy), a good Indian, maybe the occasional brekkie at a greasy spoon. Everything else, I'd rather make at home for quarter of the price.

[John Barrett Lee @johnbarrettlee]

@OChibundum555 Thank you 🙏

[John Barrett Lee @johnbarrettlee]

Delighted to share that I've won the Exeter Writers Short Story Competition 2026 with A House Without Song.

The story will be published on the Exeter Writers website soon.

https://t.co/PVVoTf93SH

#WritingCommunity #ShortStory #ShortFiction #AmWriting

[John Barrett Lee @johnbarrettlee]

@theliterarypig Thank you 🙏

[John Barrett Lee @johnbarrettlee]

@DreyfusJames Is there room in the Delorean for one more, James?

[John Barrett Lee @johnbarrettlee]

@tomhfh @5Pillarsuk If not for alcohol and gay friends, I'd have no social life whatsoever.