Kenneth Wayne Brewer (November 28, 1941 – March 15, 2006) was 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 ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

and longtime scholar who resided in

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

, where he served as

Poet Laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ...

. Born in

Indianapolis, Indiana Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Mari ...

, he attended Butler University and

Western New Mexico University Western New Mexico University is a public university in Silver City, New Mexico. It was founded in 1893. History Founded in the Territory of New Mexico on February 11, 1893 as the New Mexico Normal School, the school began to offer classes on S ...

in the 1960s, then earned a master's degree in

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

from

New Mexico State University New Mexico State University (NMSU or NM State) is a public land-grant research university based primarily in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Founded in 1888, it is the oldest public institution of higher education in New Mexico and one of the state's tw ...

, followed by a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

from the

University of Utah The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...

, where he worked with

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...

winner Henry Taylor, in 1973. Since that time he taught a wide variety of courses at

Utah State University Utah State University (USU or Utah State) is a public land-grant research university in Logan, Utah. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. With nearly 20,000 students living on or near campus, USU is Utah's ...

, concentrating on mentoring creative writers at the graduate level, while publishing prolifically and speaking extensively. He died after a nine-month battle with

pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of t ...

Publications

In over three decades at Utah State, Brewer published eight volumes of his

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

as well as more than individual 300 poems, essays and reviews in

literary journals A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry, and essays, along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and letter ...

. Collections of his poetry may be found in * ''The Place In Between'', Limberlost Press, 1998 * ''Lake's Edge'', Woodhedge Press, 1997 * ''Hoping for all, Dreading Nothing'', Slanting Rain Press, 1994 * ''A Fine Art Book of Poems with Woodcuts by Harry Taylor'' * ''To Remember What is Lost'', USU Press, 1982 (), 68pp. Re-issued in paperback, 1989 () * ''The Collected Poems of Mongrel'', Compost Press, 1981 * ''Round Again: A Cycle of Poems'', published under a grant from the Utah Institute of Fine Arts, 1980 * ''Sum of Accidents, Chapbook Series'', Alliance for the Varied Arts, 1977 * ''Places, Shadows, Dancing People'', USU Monograph Series, Vol. XVII, No. 1, 1969, pp. 31–47, with Tom Lyons, Joyce Wood and Robert Wood.

Reviews

* "His poems are direct, accessible and free of the arcane references or pretentious language that can make poetry feel elitist." — KUTV, Salt Lake Cit

* "achingly beautiful," composed of "spare and unimposing imagery and dialogue" — Starr Coulbrooke, quoted i
''Continuum''
* "Utah Poet Laureate Ken Brewer is known for his fine poetry and his wicked sense of humor" — Michael Sha

* "luminously gifted ... a man who writes of passion and earth-tending in a chunk of America in which it has begun to seem that the only passion burning for the earth is about profit" — Mary Sojourner, i
Mountain Gazette

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brewer, Ken Poets Laureate of Utah Deaths from pancreatic cancer Butler University alumni Western New Mexico University alumni New Mexico State University alumni University of Utah alumni Utah State University faculty American academics of English literature 1941 births 2006 deaths Poets from Utah Writers from Indianapolis 20th-century American poets 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American male writers Poets from Indiana Deaths from cancer in Utah