Jericho Brown

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Jericho Brown
0 Jericho Brown 8126143.jpg
Jericho Brown reading at the 2023 National Book Festival
BornNelson Demery III
(1976-04-14) April 14, 1976 (age 49)
Shreveport, Louisiana, U.S.
Occupation
LanguageEnglish
Education Dillard University (BA)
University of New Orleans (MFA)
University of Houston (PhD)
Notable works The Tradition (2019)
Website
jerichobrown.com

Jericho Brown (born April 14, 1976) is an American poet and writer. Born and raised in Shreveport, Louisiana, Brown has worked as an educator at institutions such as the University of Houston, the University of San Diego, and Emory University. His poems have been published in The Nation , New England Review , The New Republic , Oxford American , and The New Yorker , among others. He released his first book of prose and poetry, Please, in 2008. His second book, The New Testament, was released in 2014. His 2019 collection of poems, The Tradition , garnered widespread critical acclaim.

Contents

Brown has won several accolades throughout his career, including a Whiting Award, an American Book Award, an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. [1] [2]

Life

Born Nelson Demery III and raised in Shreveport, Louisiana, Brown later changed his name and graduated from Dillard University, where he was initiated as a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, through the Beta Phi chapter, in the fall of 1995. He also graduated from the University of New Orleans with an MFA, and from the University of Houston with a Ph.D. [3]

Brown was a teaching fellow in the English department at the University of Houston from 2002 to 2007, a visiting professor at San Diego State University's MFA program in spring 2009, and an assistant professor of English at the University of San Diego. He has also taught at numerous conferences and workshops, including the Iowa Summer Writing Festival at the University of Iowa. He is an associate professor of English and director of the Creative Writing Program at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. [4] Previously, he worked as a speechwriter for the mayor of New Orleans. [5]

In 2011, Brown received the 2011 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Poetry. [1] His poems have appeared in The Iowa Review , jubilat , The Nation , New England Review , The New Republic , Oxford American , The New Yorker , Enkare Review , and The Best American Poetry . He serves as an Assistant Editor at Callaloo . [6]

His first book, Please (New Issues Poetry & Prose, 2008), won the American Book Award. [7] His second book, a book of poetry titled The New Testament (Copper Canyon Press, 2014), won the 2015 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award.

Brown's third book, a collection of poems titled The Tradition (Copper Canyon Press, 2019), garnered widespread critical acclaim and won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. [2]

Brown published his fourth book in 2023, How We Do it: Black Writers on Craft, Practice and Skill, an anthology of 31 essays and interviews from African American authors. [8]

Awards

Works

Articles

Interviews

Books

Poems

References

  1. 1 2 3 "National Endowment for the Arts 2011 Poetry Fellows". Archived from the original on November 27, 2010.
  2. 1 2 3 "2020 Pulitzer Prizes". The Pulitzer Prizes. May 4, 2020. Archived from the original on July 30, 2020. Retrieved May 4, 2020.
  3. "Jericho Brown". Academy of American Poets. Archived from the original on March 12, 2013. Retrieved March 18, 2013.
  4. "Jericho Brown". poets.org. June 15, 2010. Archived from the original on June 12, 2017. Retrieved April 10, 2017.
  5. Kellaway, Kate (July 28, 2018). "Jericho Brown: "Poetry is a veil in front of a heart beating at a fast pace"". The Guardian . Archived from the original on December 20, 2019. Retrieved January 14, 2020.
  6. "Jericho Brown". The Missouri Review. Archived from the original on February 6, 2013. Retrieved December 5, 2013.
  7. "Wmich.edu". Archived from the original on November 29, 2014. Retrieved November 20, 2014.
  8. "HOW WE DO IT | Kirkus Reviews" via Kirkus Reviews.
  9. Blair, Elizabeth (October 1, 2024). "Here's who made the 2024 MacArthur Fellows list". NPR. Retrieved October 1, 2024.
  10. "Jericho Brown". National Book Foundation. Retrieved August 14, 2025.
  11. "Emory poet and professor Jericho Brown wins prestigious Anisfield-Wolf Book Award | Emory University | Atlanta GA". news.emory.edu. Emory University. Archived from the original on January 27, 2023. Retrieved July 11, 2023.
  12. Rich, Motoko (October 29, 2009). "Whiting Prizes Awarded to Emerging Writers". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 11, 2023. Retrieved July 11, 2023 via NYTimes.com.
  13. "Jericho Brown". Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. Retrieved August 14, 2025.
  14. Anderson, Lexi (November 13, 2018). "Why Everyone Needs to Read Jericho Brown's 'Please'". Study Breaks. Pratt University. Archived from the original on July 11, 2023. Retrieved July 11, 2023.
  15. Teicher, Craig Morgan (October 18, 2014). "A Collection Of Poems That Offers An Unlikely Kind Of Hope". NPR. Archived from the original on July 10, 2023. Retrieved July 10, 2023.
  16. Phillips, Maya (April 2, 2019). "A Poetic Body of Work Grapples With the Physical Body at Risk". The New York Times . New York City, New York. Archived from the original on July 10, 2023. Retrieved July 10, 2023.

Further reading