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Rebecca Brown (author)

Rebecca Brown (born 1956) is an American novelist, essayist, playwright, artist, and professor.[2] She was the first writer in residence at Richard Hugo House, co-founder of the Jack Straw Writers Program,[3] and served as the creative director of literature at Centrum in Port Townsend, Washington from 2005 to 2009.[4][5] Brown's best-known work is her novel The Gifts of the Body, which won a Lambda Literary Award in 1994.[6] Rebecca Brown is an Emeritus faculty member in the MFA in Creative Writing Program at Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont[7] and is also a multi-media artist whose work has been displayed in galleries such as the Frye Art Museum.[8]

Early life

Brown was born into a Navy family that moved often; she lived in California, Texas, Kansas, and Spain.[9] She has a brother and sister.[10] She earned a bachelor's in English from George Washington University and a Master's in Creative Writing from the University of Virginia.[9] After finishing her MFA in the early 1980s, she settled in Seattle before moving to live in London and Italy for several years.[10][11] She returned to Seattle in 1990 and has been there since.[10] Brown's mother, Barbara Ann Wildman Brown, passed away from cancer in 1997; the experience of being her caretaker inspired the book Excerpts from a Family Medical Dictionary.[8][12] Her father, who left the family when Brown was a teenager, died from a heart attack shortly after her mother; his death inspired The End of Youth.[13]

Career

Brown's works include collections of essays and short stories, a fictionalized autobiography, a modern bestiary, a memoir in the guise of a medical dictionary, a libretto for a dance opera, a play, and various kinds of fantasy. Brown has "a uniquely recognizable voice, writing as she does in a stark style that combines the minimalism of Ernest Hemingway with some of the incantatory rhythms of Gertrude Stein."[14] She shares some personal preferences with the latter.[2]

Brown wrote and performed her one-woman production Monstrous, a look at some of literature's monsters and how they don't fit anywhere, at the Northwest Film Forum in 2013.[15] She has also written a play, The Toaster, which debuted at Seattle's New City Theater in 2005, and a dance opera called The Onion Twins for the BetterBiscuitDance Company.[11] In 2001, the About Face Theater in Chicago adapted The Terrible Girls into a play.[2] New Short Fiction Series in Los Angeles adapted four different stories from The End of Youth to stage in 2003.[11]

She has been part of the faculties of the University of Washington Bothell, Evergreen State College, and Goddard College and has taught at Naropa University's Jack Kerouac School and Pacific Lutheran University.[9][11] In addition to Hugo House, Brown has also done residencies at Yaddo, Hawthornden Castle, MacDowell, Centrum, Millay Arts, and Hedgebrook.[11]

Personal life

Brown lives in Capitol Hill, Seattle with her wife Chris Galloway and their cats.[16][11][10][17] She has been a practicing Roman Catholic since 2012.[10][18][2]

Honors and awards

In 2005, she was awarded the Stranger Genius Award and given a $5,000 grant.[19][20]

Selected works

References

  1. ^ Xhonneux, Lies (2012-12-18). "The Serial Mythology of a Non-Representative Self: Rebecca Brown's Life Writing". Authorship. 2 (1). doi:10.21825/aj.v2i1.764. hdl:10067/1025250151162165141. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
  2. ^ a b c d Mudede, Charles (2005-10-13). "Literature: Rebecca Brown". The Stranger. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
  3. ^ Stadler, Matthew (1999). "Rebecca Brown: The Byronic Woman". Lambda Book Report. 8 (3): 6–8. Archived from the original on 2013-07-04.
  4. ^ a b "CONTAGIOUS EXCHANGES: Rebecca Brown and C. Davida Ingram". Hugo House. 2016. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
  5. ^ "Rebecca Brown". Brown University. n.d. Archived from the original on 2021-08-03. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
  6. ^ Brown, Rebecca (25 October 2007). "Two pieces from P-I Writer in Residence Rebecca Brown". Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
  7. ^ "Award-winning author Rebecca Brown to speak at Goddard College". Goddard College. n.d. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
  8. ^ a b Robbins, Jefferson (2013-09-17). "Rebecca Brown on Working in Varied Art Forms, Developing a Distinct Style". Humanities Washington. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
  9. ^ a b c "Rebecca Brown to read Nov. 10". Washington University in St. Louis. 2011-11-04. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
  10. ^ a b c d e Brown, Rebecca (May 2015). "An Interview with Rebecca Brown" (Interview). Interviewed by Alex Davis-Lawrence. Seattle, WA: Moss Lit. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
  11. ^ a b c d e f "Artistic Director Rebecca Brown". Centrum. 2004-03-20. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
  12. ^ Mantel, Hilary (2004-03-08). "Sick notes". NewStatesman. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
  13. ^ Peck, Dale (2003). "'Hatchet Jobs' - Give Me Shelter". The new York Times. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
  14. ^ Xhonneux, Lies. Rebecca Brown: Literary Subversions of Homonormalization. Amherst, NY: Cambria Press, 2014, p. 5
  15. ^ Kiley, Brendan (2013-12-07). "'Monstrous'". The Stranger. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
  16. ^ Large, Jerry (1996-04-08). "Finding The 'Gifts' -- Rebecca Brown Writes Her Own Success Story". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
  17. ^ "A Message to the City from Rebecca Brown". The Stranger. 2020-04-11. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
  18. ^ DeBernardo, Francis (2016-10-07). "Catholic Lesbian Author Describes the Beauty of Incarnational Faith and Love". New Ways Ministry. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
  19. ^ "Works by Dario Robleto and Henry Darger Inspire Local Writers in Frye's New Literary Works Series". FRYE Museum. 2008-04-29. Archived from the original on 2021-08-03. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
  20. ^ Kiley, Brendan (2017-09-27). "Stranger Genius Awards postponed until spring". Seattle Times. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
  21. ^ a b c d "Award-Winning Books by Rebecca Brown". FictionDB. n.d. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
  22. ^ "Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award - Regional Book". FictionDB. n.d. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
  23. ^ "Governor's Writers Day Awards at the Washington State Library, 1966-2000". Washington Secretary of State. n.d. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
  24. ^ "Washington State Book Awards". Washington Secretary of State. n.d. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
  25. ^ "Rebecca Brown wins LGBT Award". NW Book Lovers. 2010-05-04. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
  26. ^ "The Haunted House". GoodReads. n.d. Retrieved 2021-08-02.
  27. ^ Dyson, Freeman (1981). "The Children's Crusade". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. 37 (10): 1. Bibcode:1981BuAtS..37j...1D. doi:10.1080/00963402.1981.11458914.
  28. ^ The Terrible Girls.
  29. ^ "Annie Oakely's Girl". Kirkus. 1993-04-01. Retrieved 2021-08-02.
  30. ^ The gifts of the body.
  31. ^ What Keeps Me Here.
  32. ^ The Dogs: A Modern Bestiary.
  33. ^ Excerpts from a Family Medical Dictionary.
  34. ^ The end of youth.
  35. ^ "The Last Time I Saw You". Publishers Weekly. 2006-01-16. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
  36. ^ American Romances.
  37. ^ Not Heaven, Somewhere Else.

External links