Fleda Brown (born 1944 in Columbia, Missouri) is an American

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wr ...

and

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

. She is also known as Fleda Brown Jackson.

Biography

Fleda Brown was born in Columbia, Missouri, and raised in Fayetteville, Arkansas. In 1978 she joined the

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially UD or Delaware) is a public land-grant research university located in Newark, Delaware. UD is the largest university in Delaware. It offers three associate's programs, 148 bachelor's programs, 121 m ...

English Department. There she founded the Poets in the Schools Program, which she directed for more than twelve years. She served as

poet laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch ...

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacen ...

from 2001 to 2007, when she retired from the University of Delaware and moved to

Traverse City, Michigan Traverse City ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Grand Traverse County, although a small portion extends into Leelanau County. It is the largest city in the 21-county Northern Michigan region. The population wa ...

. She currently teaches in the Rainier Writing Workshop, a low-residency MFA program at

Pacific Lutheran University Pacific Lutheran University (PLU) is a private Lutheran university in Parkland, Washington. It was founded by Norwegian Lutheran immigrants in 1890. PLU is sponsored by the 580 congregations of Region I of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in A ...

Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, Washington, Olympia, and northwest of Mount ...

. Her husband, Jerry Beasley, is also a retired English professor. One of Brown's poems, "If I Were a Swan", has been set for choir by

Kevin Puts Kevin Matthew Puts (born January 3, 1972) is an American composer, best known for winning a Pulitzer Prize in 2012 for his first opera, ''Silent Night''. Early life and education Puts was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and grew up in Alma, Mi ...

Education

*Ph.D. (English, Pre-1900 American Literature), University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, 1983 *M.A. (English), University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, 1976 *B.A. (English), University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, 1969

Bibliography

Poetry *''The woods are on fire : new and selected poems'', Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, 2017. , *Reunion (University of Wisconsin Press, 2007) , – won 2007 Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry *The Women Who Loved Elvis All Their Lives (Carnegie-Mellon University Press, 2004) , *Breathing In Breathing Out (Anhinga Press, 2002) – won 2001 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry *Devil's Child (Carnegie-Mellon University Press, 1998) , *The Earliest House (chapbook, Kutztown University, 1994) *Do Not Peel the Birches (Purdue University Press, 1993) *The Eleusinian Mysteries MS (poems and images: limited edition artbook, The Moment Press, 1992) – with Norman Sasowsky *Fishing with Blood (Purdue University Press, 1988) , – won the Great Lakes Colleges New Writer’s Award Anthologies *''On the Mason-Dixon Line: An Anthology of Contemporary Delaware Writers'' (University of Delaware Press, 2008) – co-edited with Billie Travalini *''Critical Essays on D.H. Lawrence'' (G. K. Hall & Company, 1988) – co-edited with Dennis Jackson

References

External links

The Fleda Brown Web Site

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Fleda 1944 births Living people American women poets Pacific Lutheran University faculty Writers from Columbia, Missouri People from Fayetteville, Arkansas University of Arkansas alumni University of Delaware faculty Poets from Arkansas Poets from Delaware Poets from Missouri 20th-century American poets 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American poets 21st-century American women writers American women academics Poets Laureate of Delaware