Laynie Browne (born 1966,

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

) is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

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 ...

. Her work explores notions of silence and the invisible, through the re-contextualization of poetic forms, such as sonnets (''Daily Sonnets''), tales (''The Scented Fox''), letters (''The Desires of Letters''), psalms (''Lost Parkour Ps(alms)) ''and others.

Life

Laynie Browne received her M.F.A. from

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

in 1990. She was a member of the Subtext collective,

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, and The Ear Inn in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Browne has worked as an arts educator in public K–12 schools, with a focus on poetry. She has taught at

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

Mills College Mills College at Northeastern University is a private college in Oakland, California and part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was ...

, and at the Poetry Center at the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

. Currently, she is a professor of creative writing at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. Browne also serves as a mentor in the Afghan Women's Writing Project. Her work has appeared in ''The Norton Anthology of Postmodern American Poetry'', ''Conjunctions'', ''Fence'', ''Monkey Puzzle, Ecopoetry: A Contemporary American Anthology'', ''Poet's Choice. ''She is co-editor of'' I'll Drown My Book: Conceptual Writing by Women (''Les Figues Press, 2012'') a''nd is currently editing an anthology of original essays on the Poet's Novel''.'' Browne's other current project, ''You Envelop Me'', utilizes the elegy to investigate birth and loss within the context of the mourning process. "Attempts to illuminate once-hidden meanings are points of perforation, punctures in the fabric of writing," says Browne. "I consider form as a container, lens, garment, dwelling, and means of locomotion." She lives in

Wallingford, Pennsylvania Wallingford is an unincorporated community in Nether Providence Township, Pennsylvania, Nether Providence Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Delaware County in Pennsylvanias. Founded in 1687, it is named for Wallingford, Oxfordshire, Wallin ...

. As of 2023, she teaches at the

Awards

National Poetry Series The National Poetry Series is an American literary awards program. Every year since 1979, the National Poetry Series has sponsored the publication of five books of poetry. Manuscripts are solicited through an annual open competition, judged and cho ...

(2006) * Pew Fellowship in the Arts, Pew Center for Arts & Heritage (2014) * Gertrude Stein Award in Innovative American Poetry (Three-time recipient)

Work

* * * * * * * ''Original Presence'', Shivistan Books (2006) * * * * * * ''Lost Parkour Ps(alms)''. Presses Universitaires de Rouen. 2014. . (Available in English and French)

chapbooks

* * * * * * *

Novels

* Acts of Levitation, a novel (2002, Spuyten Duyvil)

References

External links

Laynie Browne on PennSoundLaynie Browne's profile on The Poetry Foundation
* Laynie Browne's poem "Dear She" in
''Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts'' (25.1)

Series of essays and interviews on the poet's novel for Jacket2
{{DEFAULTSORT:Browne, Laynie Living people Poets from Arizona Poets from Los Angeles University of Washington faculty Mills College faculty University of Arizona faculty 1966 births American women poets Writers from Tucson, Arizona Pew Fellows in the Arts American women academics Brown University alumni 21st-century American women