Fleda Brown, Delaware
Fleda
Brown has published four books of poems, and her work has appeared in
Poetry, The Kenyon Review, The Southern Review, American
Poetry Review, The Georgia Review, and many other journals.
Her poems have been used as texts for several prize-winning musical compositions
performed at Eastman School of Music, Yale University, and by the Pittsburgh
New Music Ensemble, and her book Breathing In, Breathing Out, was
chosen by Philip Levine for the first annual Levine Poetry Prize. Brown
is professor of English at the University of Delaware, where she directs
the Graduate Student Poets in the Schools program.
Appointment: Appointed by the governor
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I think most governors, legislatures, or state Divisions of Arts (whoever appoints a poet laureate), don't know much about poetry or what should be done with it. It is to their credit when they appoint a poet laureate anyway. Our role very naturally becomes a teaching one, which implies a political role as well. As we teach, we shape. Reading and speaking at the opening of the state legislature, I've explained the need for support for the arts, even in bad economic times. I've written essentially an antiwar poem for another state event. I intend to use my public voice, but within the scope of a good poem, inviting the reader into its world, not declaiming from a pulpit. One of my educational concerns for a long time has been how—and if—secondary school teachers teach poetry, so I've put together a lot of material for my Web site (including several video clips) to help and encourage teachers. I've visited teachers around the state to give workshops on teaching poetry, and I've made it a goal to read at six schools each year. My political stance is that we ask students to take the writing of poetry as seriously as they do the other genres—that teachers require planning and revision, and that when they teach modern poetry, they pay close attention to the form and sounds of the poem. I'm also working with a committee to sponsor poetry workshops in nonschool venues —prisons, detention centers, Boys and Girls Clubs, and YMCAs for at-risk kids. One of my favorite projects has been a poetry retreat I led this fall. I chose twelve poets (statewide, by their work, submitted to me anonymously) to spend a long weekend writing and participating in workshops each evening. The group has become a core out of which several further projects are emerging.
–Fleda Brown
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