Jericho Brown

Jericho Brown
Brown in 2014
Born	Nelson Demery III (1976-04-14) April 14, 1976 (age 45) Shreveport, Louisiana, U.S.
Occupation	Poet professor
Language	English
Alma mater	Dillard University University of New Orleans University of Houston
Genre	Poetry
Notable works	The Tradition (2019)
Website
www.jerichobrown.com

Jericho Brown (born April 14, 1976) is an American poet and writer. Born and raised in Shreveport, Louisiana, Brown has worked as an educator at institutions such as University of Houston, San Diego State University, and Emory University. His poems have been published in The Nation, New England Review, The New Republic, Oxford American, and The New Yorker, among others. He released his first book of prose and poetry, Please, in 2008. His second book, The New Testament, was released in 2014. His 2019 collection of poems, The Tradition, garnered widespread critical acclaim.

Brown has won several accolades throughout his career, including a Whiting Award, an American Book Award, an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.^[1][2]

Life[]

Born Nelson Demery III and was raised in Shreveport, Louisiana,^[3] Brown later changed his name and graduated from Dillard University, where he was initiated as a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, through the Beta Phi chapter, in the fall of 1995. He also graduated from the University of New Orleans with an MFA, and from the University of Houston with a Ph.D.

Brown was a teaching fellow in the English department at the University of Houston from 2002 to 2007, a visiting professor at San Diego State University's MFA program in spring 2009, and an assistant professor of English at the University of San Diego. He has also taught at numerous conferences and workshops, including the at the University of Iowa. He is an associate professor of English and director of the Creative Writing Program at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.^[4] Previously, he worked as a speechwriter for the mayor of New Orleans.^[5]

In 2011, Brown received the 2011 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Poetry.^[1] His poems have appeared in The Iowa Review, jubilat, The Nation, New England Review, The New Republic, Oxford American, The New Yorker, Enkare Review, and The Best American Poetry. He serves as an Assistant Editor at Callaloo.^[6]

His first book, Please (New Issues Poetry & Prose, 2008), won the American Book Award.^[7] His second book, a book of poetry titled The New Testament (Copper Canyon Press, 2014), won the 2015 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award.^[8]

Brown's third book, a collection of poems titled The Tradition (Copper Canyon Press, 2019), garnered widespread critical acclaim and won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.^[9]

Personal[]

Brown is gay and HIV-positive.^[10]

Awards[]

• 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry^[11]
• 2016 Guggenheim Fellowship
• 2015 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award
• 2011 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Poetry^[1]
• 2009 American Book Award
• 2009 Whiting Award
• 2009–2010 fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University

Works[]

Books

• Please (New Issues Poetry & Prose, 2008). ISBN 978-1-930974-79-1
• The New Testament (Copper Canyon Press, 2014). ISBN 978-1-55659-457-1
• The Tradition (Copper Canyon Press, 2019). ISBN 9781556594861

Poems

• "Thrive", Oxford American, October 2014
• "Elegy", Rumpus, May 2009
• "Rick", AGNI, March 2007
• "To Be Seen", The Missouri Review

References[]

External links[]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Jericho Brown

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jericho Brown.

• Official website
• 'Love in Contemporary American Gay Male Poetry in the Works of Richard Siken, Eduardo C Corral and Jericho Brown' Simeon Kronenberg, Cordite Poetry Review (2015).
• "Profile at The Whiting Foundation"
• "Danger by Desire: A Conversation between Jericho Brown & James Allen Hall", Boxcar Poetry Review
• "Naming Each Place"
• Until the Fulcrum Tips: A Conversation with Rita Dove and Jericho Brown, The Best American Poetry
• "Jericho Brown Presents The Phantastique 5", The Best American Poetry