Wayne Vincent Brown (born 18 July 1944 in Port of Spain,

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of ...

; died 15 September 2009 in Stony Hill,

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

) was a columnist, poet and fiction writer, and a teacher and mentor to numerous Caribbean writers.

Early life

Wayne Brown was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, to a Trinidadian father, Kenneth Vincent Brown, and a Barbadian mother, Vere Vincent Brown (''née'' Edghill). His grandfather was Vincent Brown, the Attorney-General of Trinidad and Tobago. His mother died soon after giving birth to him, and for most of his childhood Wayne was brought up by relatives, while his father worked as a

puisne judge A puisne judge or puisne justice (; from french: puisné or ; , 'since, later' + , 'born', i.e. 'junior') is a dated term for an ordinary judge or a judge of lesser rank of a particular court. Use The term is used almost exclusively in common law ...

."Trevor Rhone, Wayne Brown are dead"
''The Jamaica Observer'', 16 September 2009.

Academic life

Brown had been a Fulbright Scholar in the United States, Gregory Fellow in Poetry at the

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

from 1974 to 1977 and a Fellow of

Yaddo Yaddo is an artists' community located on a estate in Saratoga Springs, New York. Its mission is "to nurture the creative process by providing an opportunity for artists to work without interruption in a supportive environment.". On March ...

, MacDowell and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. He also attended the

International Writing Program The International Writing Program (IWP) is a writing residency for international artists in Iowa City, Iowa. Since 2014, the program offers online courses to many writers and poets around the world. Since its inception in 1967, the IWP has hosted o ...

at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 col ...

and is the founder of the Observer Creative Writing Workshop. Most recently, he was an instructor at

Lesley University Lesley University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education. As of 2018-19 Lesley University enrolled 6,593 students (2,707 undergraduate and 3,886 graduate). History ...

's MFA in Creative Writing Program.

Writing

He was the author of ''On The Coast'', for which he was awarded the

Commonwealth Poetry Prize The Commonwealth Poetry Prize was an annual poetry prize established in 1972, for a first published book of English poetry from a country other than the United Kingdom. It was initially administered jointly by the Commonwealth Institute and the Nat ...

in 1973. His works also include ''Landscape with Heron'' (2000), ''Edna Manley: The Private Years'' (1976), ''Voyages'' (1989) and ''The Child of the Sea'' (1990). He also edited ''Selected Poetry'' and ''Bearing Witness: The Best of the Observer Arts Magazine 2000''. Brown lived in

, adopting it as his home in 1997. In 1998, he founded the ''Observer Literary Arts'' magazine that spawned a new generation of Caribbean writers. Brown wrote a weekly column for ''

The Jamaica Observer ''Jamaica Observer'' is a daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety o ...

'' entitled "In Our Time". The column also appeared in Trinidad at the ''

Trinidad and Tobago Express The ''Trinidad and Tobago Express'', better known as ''Daily Express'' (and the weekend editions ''Saturday Express'' and ''Sunday Express''), is one of three daily newspapers in Trinidad and Tobago. The ''Daily Express'' as per its masthead is p ...

'', as well as in the Guyanese press. His final writing engagement had been a weekly column, "In the Obama Era", for the ''Express'', the '' Barbados Daily Nation'' and Guyana's '' Stabroek News''. One of Brown's most memorable poems, "Noah," retells the Genesis story in symbolic terms. The ark filled with animals is "his mind's ark"; the ship and its occupants " at and beat across the same sea / Bloated, adrift, finding / Nothing to fasten to." And by poem's end "Noah, released,/ Turned once more outwards, giving thanks. / Relief dazed them: nobody realized / Nothing had changed." Peace with God appears illusory; perhaps the ark of the mind cannot be remade, nor the world cleansed.

Bibliography

* ''On the Coast and other poems'' (1973, Commonwealth Prize for Poetry; Peepal Tree Press, 2010) * ''Edna Manley: The Private Years'' (Andre Deutsch, 1976) * ''Voyages'' (Imprint Caribbean, 1989) * ''The Child of the Sea'' (Imprint Caribbean, 1990) * ''Landscape with Heron'' (2000) * ''The Scent of the Past and other stories'' (Peepal Tree Press, 2011)

References

External links

"Pan Session: Laventille" by Wayne Brown
''

Caribbean Review of Books ''The Caribbean Review of Books'', or ''CRB'', is a literary magazine based in Port of Spain, Trinidad, reviewing books of Caribbean interest—by Caribbean authors or about the Caribbean—and publishing original fiction, poetry, and other liter ...