St. John’s Professor Inspires Emerging
Writers
Lee Ann Brown, M.F.A., has personally experienced the
“transformative” power of poetry. Fashioning evocative phrases and
bringing them to life on the page is a craft she enjoys sharing
with her students at St. John’s University.
“Poetry offers unparalleled opportunities for capturing — and
intensifying — the experience of living,” said Brown, an Associate
Professor of English
in St. John’s College of
Liberal Arts and Sciences. “It’s wonderful to see the way
expressing and sharing their feelings awakens a shared sense of
understanding among students in the classroom.”
As powerful as poetry is, Brown observed, its impact is
especially compelling at St. John’s. “The University’s students
come from across the country and all over the world,” she said.
“That diversity brings enormous variety to the insights and
experiences they communicate in their work.”
St. John’s focus on Academic
Service-Learning enlivens Brown’s undergraduate and graduate
poetry workshops. She helps students to incorporate volunteer
activities at local churches, community centers, educational
institutions, museums and nursing homes. Engaging in service as
well, Brown uses poetry to help strengthen the literacy and
communications skills of young learners at schools throughout New
York City.
Arriving at St. John’s as an adjunct professor in 1996, Brown
became a full-time faculty member in 2000. Her multidisciplinary
approach to poetry is influenced by her background in songwriting
and a-cappella singing, which she has performed in her home state
of North Carolina. Brown returns every summer to participate
in projects such as the French
Broad Institute (of Time & the River) and the Children’s
Arts in the Mountains Program.
Born in Japan, Brown earned her undergraduate and graduate
degrees at Brown University. Her poetry collection In the
Laurels, Caught received the 2012 Fence Modern Poets Series
Award. This spring, Carolina Wren Press will release Crowns of
Charlotte. Wesleyan Press published another collection,
The Sleep That Changed Everything, in 2003. Her first
book, Polyverse (Sun & Moon Press, 1999), was honored
with the New American Poetry Series Award. Brown also has received
fellowships from a variety of arts organizations.
Brown draws upon her broad experience to keep her students
engaged in and out of the classroom. Each semester, she organizes a
reading from a visiting poet. She also collaborates with the
University’s Department of Fine Arts to promote the connection
between poetry and other forms of creative expression. “Enabling
students to explore a wide range of approaches,” she said, “becomes
a platform for freely expressing themselves in class.”
Photo credit A.L. Nielson