Laynie Browne (born 1966,

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

) 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 (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

. Her work explores notions of silence and the invisible, through the re-contextualization of poetic forms, such as sonnets (''Daily Sonnets''), tales (''The Scented Fox''), letters (''The Desires of Letters''), psalms (''Lost Parkour Ps(alms)) ''and others.

Life

Laynie Browne received her M.F.A. from

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

in 1990. She was a member of the Subtext collective,

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

, and The Ear Inn in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. Browne has worked as an arts educator in public K–12 schools, with a focus on poetry. She has taught at

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

Mills College Mills College at Northeastern University in Oakland, California is part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was relocated to Oakland in ...

, and at the Poetry Center at the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it ...

. Currently, she is a professor of creative writing at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

. Browne also serves as a mentor in the Afghan Women's Writing Project. Her work has appeared in ''The Norton Anthology of Postmodern American Poetry'', ''Conjunctions'', ''Fence'', ''Monkey Puzzle, Ecopoetry: A Contemporary American Anthology'', ''Poet's Choice. ''She is co-editor of'' I'll Drown My Book: Conceptual Writing by Women (''Les Figues Press, 2012'') a''nd is currently editing an anthology of original essays on the Poet's Novel''.'' Browne's other current project, ''You Envelop Me'', utilizes the elegy to investigate birth and loss within the context of the mourning process. "Attempts to illuminate once-hidden meanings are points of perforation, punctures in the fabric of writing," says Browne. "I consider form as a container, lens, garment, dwelling, and means of locomotion." She lives in

Wallingford, Pennsylvania Wallingford is an unincorporated community in Nether Providence Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1687, it is named for Wallingford, England. In 2007, Wallingford was named by ''Money Magazine'' as the ninth b ...

. As of 2023, she teaches at the

Awards

National Poetry Series The National Poetry Series is an American literary awards program. Every year since 1979, the National Poetry Series has sponsored the publication of five books of poetry. Manuscripts are solicited through an annual open competition, judged and c ...

(2006) *

Pew Fellowship in the Arts The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage is a nonprofit organization, nonprofit grantmaking organization and knowledge-sharing hub for arts and culture in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US established in 2005. In 2008, Paula Marincola was named the first ...

, Pew Center for Arts & Heritage (2014) * Gertrude Stein Award in Innovative American Poetry (Three-time recipient)

Work

* * * * * * * ''Original Presence'', Shivistan Books (2006) * * * * * * ''Lost Parkour Ps(alms)''. Presses Universitaires de Rouen. 2014. . (Available in English and French)

chapbooks

* * * * * * *

Novels

* Acts of Levitation, a novel (2002, Spuyten Duyvil)

References

External links

Laynie Browne on PennSoundLaynie Browne's profile on The Poetry Foundation
* Laynie Browne's poem "Dear She" in
''Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts'' (25.1)

Series of essays and interviews on the poet's novel for Jacket2
{{DEFAULTSORT:Browne, Laynie Living people Poets from Arizona Poets from Los Angeles University of Washington faculty Mills College faculty University of Arizona faculty 1966 births American women poets Writers from Tucson, Arizona Pew Fellows in the Arts American women academics Brown University alumni 21st-century American women