Steven Ford Brown: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 11:11, 29 December 2022

Steven Ford Brown in 1983. Photo by Dennis Harper

Steven Ford Brown (born September 11, 1952, in Florence (Lauderdale County), Alabama, is a journalist, music critic, and translator, currently living in Somerville, Massachusetts.

Of French and Scottish descent, Brown is the son of Ford Brown, a sales executive who served as a U.S. Marine in the Pacific theater during World War II, and Gloria Peters. As a student at Huffman High School in the Birmingham suburbs, he became interested in the literature of the San Francisco the Beat Generation writers of the 1950s and 1960s, and music of the British Invasion bands of the era. He completed his bachelor's degree in English and Literature in 1983 at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and has also studied at the University of Houston and Harvard University's Extension School.

In 1973 Brown moved from the suburbs to Birmingham’s Southside. There he joined a loose congregation of artists, writers, and musicians who gathered and lived at the Cobb Lane Studios above the Cobb Lane Restaurant and other places in the Five Points South area. He began his writing career at the alternative newspaper The Paperman as a journalist, books and literary editor and music reviewer. He created and edited for the paper an original series of profiles of American artists and writers that included photographer Diane Arbus, writers John Beecher, Charles Bukowski, Allen Ginsberg, Richard Hugo, Diane Wakoski, and Poets against the Vietnam War.

Aura Literary Arts Review (1977)

Brown left The Paperman in 1975 to become editor of UAB's Aura Literary Arts Review, but remained on the editorial staff of Birmingham After Dark. That same year he also founded Thunder City Press, which eventually became Ford-Brown & Co., Publishers, and published anthologies, broadsides, chapbooks, books, and magazines until 1995. In 1983, in conjunction with the Birmingham Public Library, he published Contemporary Literature in Birmingham: An Anthology, an edition that included poetry and fiction from contemporary Birmingham writers.

in 1980 Brown and writer Danny Gamble founded the "Old Town Music Hall Music and Reading" series, held thrice yearly at Drew Tombrello's Old Town Music Hall on Morris Avenue.

Edible Amazonia (2002)

In 1983, Brown moved to Houston, Texas. While in Texas he served as a board member of the Houston Poetry Festival. In 1984, Brown was appointed as Director of Research for the George Plimpton interview series, The Writer in Society, that appeared on Houston's PBS affiliate televison station and featured interviews with writers Maya Angelou, John Barth, Donald Barthelme and Bobbie Ann Mason. He edited Heart's Invention (1988), a book of literary criticism about the work of former Texas poet laureate Vassar Miller that featured an introductory essay by novelist Larry McMurtry. At the same time, Brown began translating the work of Spanish poet Ángel González leading to the publication of Astonishing World: The Selected Poems of Ángel González, 1956-1986 by Milkweed Editions in 1992. Astonishing World received a literary award in recogintion of the significance of the book from the Ministerio de Cultura in Madrid, Spain.

Brown has also translated works by Hispanic poets Nicomedes Suárez Araúz (Bolivia), Jorge Carrera Andrade (Ecuador), Ana Maria Fagundo (The Canary Islands), Juan Carlos Galeano (Colombia), and Pere Gimferrer (Catalonia). He edited a special issue of the Atlanta Review featuring contemporary poets from Latin America. A second special issue of The Atlanta Review featured poetry from the Basque, Castilian, Catalan and Galician regions of Spain. He has also been involved in Alan Cordle's "Foetry" campaign against corruption in the awarding of literary prizes.

After moving to Boston, Massachusetts in 1988, Brown worked at Harvard University and for a decade in the European Equities Banking and Insurance Department of the private investment firm Wellington Management LLP. He resigned in 2006 to live in Amsterdam, Netherlands and resume working as a writer and editor.

In Boston, Brown has served as a board member of the New England Poetry Club and been a featured writer for Boxing Herald.com, Boston Music Spotlight, "Exploit Boston". He has also contributed essays, interviews, poetry and translations to The Christian Science Monitor, The Harvard Review, Poetry, Rolling Stone, Jacket (Australia) and Verse. His translations of Jorge Carrera Andrade were featured on the BBC’s Radio 4 literary Program The Verb. Invited Guest: An Anthology of Twentieth Century Southern Poetry(University of Virginia Press 2002)was named as one of The Best Books of The Year from a University Press by the American Library Association and the American Association of University Professors, and was featured on C-Span’s Booknotes TV program.

Brown was in residency at the Swedish Writers Union in Stockholm, Sweden in 2006, where he also spent time with Swedish writer Tomas Tranströmer. His translations and other publications have been supported by grants from the Spanish Cultural Ministry in Madrid, Spain, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Linn-Henley Charitable Trust, the Cultural Office of the Swedish Embassy in New York City and the Texas Commission for the Arts. In 1982, the Birmingham Festival of Arts awarded him the "Silver Bowl" for his contributions to the literary arts of Birmingham.

Brown is the founder and managing director of The Official Website of Tomas Tranströmer, dedicated to the life and work of Tranströmer, winner of the 2011 Nobel Prize for Literature.

Publications

Brown, Steven Ford, ed. (1983) Contemporary Literature in Birmingham: An Anthology of Fiction and Poetry. Birmingham: Birmingham Public Library/Thunder City Press
Brown, Steven Ford, ed. (1993) Astonishing World: The Selected Poems of Ángel González, 1956-1986 Minneapolis, Minnesoata: Milkweed Editions.
Brown, Steven Ford, editor and translator (2002) Century of The Death of The Rose: The Selected Poems of Jorge Carrera Andrade. Montgomery: New South Books
Suárez Araúz, Nicomedes (2002) Edible Amazonia: Twenty Poems from God's Amazonian Recipe Book English translation by Steven Ford Brown. Fayetteville, New York: Bitter Oleander Press
Brown, Steven Ford, ed. (2003) One More River To Cross: The Selected Poems of John Beecher. Montgomery: New South Books
Brown, Steven Ford, editor and translator (2002) After Neruda, After Paz: 16 Latin American Poets. Atlanta, Georgia: Atlanta Review Press
Brown, Steven Ford, editor and translator (2003) 18 Contemporary Poets from Spain. Atlanta, Georgia: Atlanta Review Press
Andrade, Jorge Carrera (2007) Microgramas. English translation by Steven Ford Brown. Quito, Ecuador: Orogenia Corporacion Cultural

References

Steven Ford Brown (January 16, 2011) Wikipedia - accessed February 3, 2011
Steven Ford Brown author profile at New South Books
Steven Ford Brown profile at somervilleartscouncil.org
Yim Tam Lisa Wong,“Steven Ford Brown in conversation with Y. T. Wong," Jacket magazine (Australia), August 2002
Louis E. Bourgeois, “Foetry.com And What Academia Doesn't Want You to Know About the Creative Writing Industry, An Interview with Steven Ford Brown," Left Curve magazine, Number 30, 2005
"An Afternoon with Transtromer in Stockholm," Alabama Writers Forum Blog Archive, October 17, 2011

External links

Steven Ford Brown website

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 [[Image:Steven Ford Brown.jpg|right|thumb|Steven Ford Brown in 1983. Photo by Dennis Harper]]
-'''Steven Ford Brown'''  (born [[September 11]], [[1952]] in Florence (Lauderdale County), Alabama, is a journalist, music critic, publisher and translator, currently living in Boston, Massachusetts. He is the founder and Managing Director of The Official Tomas Tranströmer Website, a website dedicated to the life and work of the 2011 Nobel Prize winner for Literature.
+'''Steven Ford Brown'''  (born [[September 11]], [[1952]], in Florence (Lauderdale County), Alabama, is a journalist, music critic, and translator, currently living in Somerville, Massachusetts.
-Of French and Scottish descent, Brown is the son of Ford Brown (a Marine veteran of World War II and sales executive) and Gloria Peters (a housewife). As a high school student in Birmingham he became interested in the San Francisco Beatnik literature of the 1950s and '60s and the music of the British Invasion bands of the era.  He completed his bachelor's in English and Literature in [[1992]] at the [[University of Alabama at Birmingham]]. He has has also studied at the University of Houston and Harvard University's Extension School.
+Of French and Scottish descent, Brown is the son of Ford Brown, a sales executive who served as a U.S. Marine in the Pacific theater during World War II, and Gloria Peters. As a student at [[Huffman High School]] in the Birmingham suburbs, he became interested in the literature of the San Francisco the Beat Generation writers of the 1950s and 1960s, and music of the British Invasion bands of the era. He completed his bachelor's degree in English and Literature in [[1983]] at the [[University of Alabama at Birmingham]], and has also studied at the University of Houston and Harvard University's Extension School.
-In [[1973]] Brown moved to Birmingham’s [[Southside]], a community just below Red Mountain and ten minutes from the downtown area of Birmingham where the most violent confrontations of the Civil Rights era took place. Not unlike New York City's Greenwich Village and San Francisco's Haight Ashbury during the 1960s, Southside, in stark contrast to the Civil Rights battleground in downtown Birmingham, was home to a tolerant alternative artistic, cultural and lifestyle scene. The Southside community featured an alternative newspaper ''[[The Paperman]]'', a Buddhist styled natural foods store [[Golden Temple Health Foods]], [[Society's Child]], a folk music oriented coffeehouse, several communes, an alternative culture headshop, a free medical clinic, the [[Charlemagne Record Exchange]], [[The Garages]] art studios and the [[Red Mountain Alternative School]].
+In [[1973]] Brown moved from the suburbs to Birmingham’s [[Southside]]. There he joined a loose congregation of artists, writers, and musicians who gathered and lived at the Cobb Lane Studios above the [[Cobb Lane Restaurant]] and other places in the Five Points South area. He began his writing career at the alternative newspaper ''[[The Paperman]]'' as a journalist, books and literary editor and music reviewer. He created and edited for the paper an original series of profiles of American artists and writers that included photographer Diane Arbus, writers [[John Beecher]], Charles Bukowski, Allen Ginsberg, Richard Hugo, Diane Wakoski, and Poets against the Vietnam War.
-Brown began his literary affiliations on Southside by joining a loose congregation of artists, writers and musicians who gathered and lived at the Cobb Lane Studios, a collection of apartments and studios above the Cobb Lane Restaurant on 20th Street. He began a writing career in earnest with ''The Paperman'' as an occasional journalist, books and literary editor and music reviewer. He created and edited for the paper an original series of features and profiles of American artists and writers that included Diane Arbus, John Beecher, Charles Bukowski, Allen Ginsberg, Richard Hugo, Diane Wakoski and Poets against the Vietnam War. During this period on Southside he also met artists Frank Fleming, Dennis Harper and Nall, bookstore owner Joe Simpson, and poet John Beecher and his wife Barbara.
+[[Image:Aura_3.jpg|left|thumb|150px|''Aura Literary Arts Review'' (1977)]]
+Brown left ''The Paperman'' in [[1975]] to become editor of UAB's ''[[Aura|Aura Literary Arts Review]]'', but remained on the editorial staff of ''[[Birmingham After Dark]]''. That same year he also founded Thunder City Press, which eventually became Ford-Brown & Co., Publishers, and published anthologies, broadsides, chapbooks, books, and magazines until [[1995]]. In 1983, in conjunction with the [[Birmingham Public Library]], he published ''Contemporary Literature in Birmingham: An Anthology,'' an edition that included poetry and fiction from contemporary Birmingham writers.
-He left ''The Paperman'' in [[1975]] to become editor of ''Aura Literary Arts Review'' at The University of Alabama at Birmingham, publishing work by Yukio Mishima (Japan), Diane Wakoski, and features on Robert Bly, Howard Nemerov, the American Prose Poem and Southern culture and literature. The same year he also founded a small literary press, [[Thunder City Press]], which eventually became Ford-Brown & Co., Publishers, and continued to publish books until [[1995]]. Over a twenty-year period his two publishing houses published anthologies, broadsides, chapbooks, books and magazines.
+in [[1980]] Brown and writer Danny Gamble founded the "Old Town Music Hall Music and Reading" series, held thrice yearly at [[Drew Tombrello]]'s [[Old Town Music Hall]] on [[Morris Avenue]].
-[[Image:Bham anthology.jpeg|left|thumb|Contemporary Literature in Birmingham, 1983]]
+[[Image:EdibleAmazonia.jpg|right|thumb|150px|''Edible Amazonia'' (2002)]]
+In 1983, Brown moved to Houston, Texas. While in Texas he served as a board member of the Houston Poetry Festival. In [[1984]], Brown was appointed as Director of Research for the George Plimpton interview series, ''The Writer in Society'', that appeared on Houston's PBS affiliate televison station and featured interviews with writers Maya Angelou, John Barth, Donald Barthelme and Bobbie Ann Mason. He edited ''Heart's Invention'' (1988), a book of literary criticism about the work of former Texas poet laureate Vassar Miller that featured an introductory essay by novelist Larry McMurtry. At the same time, Brown began translating the work of Spanish poet Ángel González leading to the publication  of ''Astonishing World: The Selected Poems of Ángel González, 1956-1986'' by Milkweed Editions in [[1992]]. Astonishing World received a literary award in recogintion of the significance of the book from the Ministerio de Cultura in Madrid, Spain.
+Brown has also translated works by Hispanic poets Nicomedes Suárez Araúz (Bolivia), Jorge Carrera Andrade (Ecuador), Ana Maria Fagundo (The Canary Islands), Juan Carlos Galeano (Colombia), and Pere Gimferrer (Catalonia). He edited a special issue of the ''Atlanta Review'' featuring contemporary poets from Latin America. A second special issue of ''The Atlanta Review'' featured poetry from the Basque, Castilian, Catalan and Galician regions of Spain.  He has also been involved in Alan Cordle's "Foetry" campaign against corruption in the awarding of literary prizes.
-With Birmingham writer [[Danny Gamble]] in [[1980]] he founded the [[Old Town Music and Reading series]] on [[Morris Avenue]] off of [[20th Street North]] in downtown Birmingham. The founding of this performance series was the culmination of a number of years of sponsorship by Brown of conferences, readings and music performances by Birmingham artists. Brown and Gamble coordinated with [[Drew Tombrello]], owner of [[The Old Town Music Hall]], to present performances to packed audiences three times a year. Performers included many local musician and writers, such as [[The Broken Hearts]], [[Johnny Coley]], [[Lolly Lee]], [[Charles Muse]], [[The Ray Reach Group]], [[Dale Short]], [[Michael Swindle]] and [[Macey Taylor]]. There were also periodic performances and readings by such notable musicians and writers as Mose Allison, Michael Harper, Philip Levine, Larry Levis, Shirley Williams and Larry Jon Wilson.
+After moving to Boston, Massachusetts in [[1988]], Brown worked at Harvard University and for a decade in the European Equities Banking and Insurance Department of the private investment firm Wellington Management LLP. He resigned in [[2006]] to live in Amsterdam, Netherlands and resume working as a writer and editor.
-In 1983 Brown left Birmingham and moved to Houston, Texas. While in Texas he served as a Board Member of the Houston Poetry Festival and as Director of Research for the George Plimpton interview series, ''The Writer in Society'', that in 1984 appeared on the Channel 8 PBS affiliate in Houston, Texas, and featured interviews with Maya Angelou, John Barth, Donald Barthelme and Bobbie Anne Mason. His own research for the series was on the short fiction and novels of Barthelme. It was during this time that he met and edited a book of literary criticism on former Texas poet Laureate Vassar Miller. ''Heart's Invention'' (1988) included an introductory essay by screenwriter Larry McMurtry. Brown began translating the work of Spanish poet Ángel González which resulted in the publication of ''Astonishing World: The Selected Poems of Ángel González'', 1956-1986 (Milkweed Editions, 1992).
+In Boston, Brown has served as a board member of the New England Poetry Club and been a featured writer for ''Boxing Herald.com'', ''Boston Music Spotlight'', "Exploit Boston". He has also contributed essays, interviews, poetry and translations to ''The Christian Science Monitor'', ''The Harvard Review'', ''Poetry'', ''Rolling Stone'', ''Jacket'' (Australia) and ''Verse''. His translations of Jorge Carrera Andrade were featured on the BBC’s Radio 4 literary Program ''The Verb''. ''Invited Guest: An Anthology of Twentieth Century Southern Poetry''(University of Virginia Press 2002)was named as one of The Best Books of The Year from a University Press by the American Library Association and the American Association of University Professors, and was featured on C-Span’s Booknotes TV program.
-Brown has contributed writing to ''The Christian Science Monitor'', ''The Harvard Review'', ''Poetry'' magazine, ''Rolling Stone'', ''Jacket'' and ''Verse''. He edited a volume of poems by [[John Beecher]] and co-edited an anthology of contemporary Southern poets.
+Brown was in residency at the Swedish Writers Union in Stockholm, Sweden in [[2006]], where he also spent time with Swedish writer Tomas Tranströmer. His translations and other publications have been supported by grants from the Spanish Cultural Ministry in Madrid, Spain, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Linn-Henley Charitable Trust, the Cultural Office of the Swedish Embassy in New York City and the Texas Commission for the Arts. In [[1982]], the [[Birmingham Festival of Arts]] awarded him the "Silver Bowl" for his contributions to the literary arts of Birmingham.
-After moving to Texas, Brown worked as a researcher for a local public television station and began translating the works of Spanish poet Ángel González. His ''Astonishing World: The Selected Poems of Ángel González, 1956-1986'' was published by the non-profit Milkweed Editions in [[1992]]. He followed that with translations of Nicomedes Suarez Arauz, Jorge Carrera Andrade, and Juan Carlos Galeano. He edited two special issues of the ''Atlanta Review'' focusing on Latin American and Spanish poetry and has been involved in Alan Cordle's "Foetry" campaign against the institutionalization of American poetry awards.
+Brown is the founder and managing director of The Official Website of Tomas Tranströmer, dedicated to the life and work of Tranströmer, winner of the 2011 Nobel Prize for Literature.
-Now residing in Boston, Massachusetts, Brown worked for Wellington Management, a private investment firm, from [[1998]] to [[2006]]. He resigned to resume working as a writer and editor. He now writes for "Boxing Herald.com" and the "Boston Music Spotlight". He was awarded a residency at the Swedish Writers Union in Stockholm, Sweden and was a featured speaker at a [[2009]] conference on Harriet Beecher-Stowe and John Beecher at the Université Paul Valéry in Montpellier III, France. Brown founded the Lion Publishing Group
+===Publications===
+* Brown, Steven Ford, ed. (1983) ''Contemporary Literature in Birmingham: An Anthology of Fiction and Poetry''. Birmingham: Birmingham Public Library/Thunder City Press
-==Bibliography (Books)==
+* Brown, Steven Ford, ed. (1993) ''Astonishing World: The Selected Poems of Ángel González, 1956-1986'' Minneapolis, Minnesoata: Milkweed Editions.
+* Brown, Steven Ford, editor and translator (2002) ''Century of The Death of The Rose: The Selected Poems of Jorge Carrera Andrade.'' Montgomery: New South Books
-===International===
+* Suárez Araúz, Nicomedes (2002) ''Edible Amazonia: Twenty Poems from God's Amazonian Recipe Book'' English translation by Steven Ford Brown. Fayetteville, New York: Bitter Oleander Press
-* ''Microgramas'', Jorge Carrera Andrade, Orogenia Corporacion Cultural: Quito, Ecuador, 2007
+* Brown, Steven Ford, ed. (2003) ''One More River To Cross: The Selected Poems of John Beecher.'' Montgomery: New South Books
+* Brown, Steven Ford, editor and translator (2002) ''After Neruda, After Paz: 16 Latin American Poets''. Atlanta, Georgia: Atlanta Review Press
-===United States===
+* Brown, Steven Ford, editor and translator (2003) ''18 Contemporary Poets from Spain''. Atlanta, Georgia: Atlanta Review Press
-* ''One More River To Cross: The Selected Poems of John Beecher'', New South Books , 2003
+* Andrade, Jorge Carrera (2007) ''Microgramas''. English translation by Steven Ford Brown. Quito, Ecuador: Orogenia Corporacion Cultural
-* ''Century of The Death of The Rose: The Selected Poems of Jorge Carrera Andrade'', New South Books , 2002
-* ''Edible Amazonia: Twenty poems from God's Amazonian Recipe Book'', Nicomedes Suarez Arauz, Bitter Oleander Press, 2002
-* ''Invited Guest: An Anthology of Twentieth Century Southern Poetry'', University of Virginia Press, 2001
-* ''Astonishing World: The Selected Poems of Ángel González, 1956-1986'', MN: Milkweed Editions, 1993
-* ''Heart’s Invention: On The Poetry Of Vassar Miller'', Ford-Brown & Co., Publishers, 1988
-* ''Contemporary Literature in Birmingham: An Anthology'', Birmingham Public Library/ Thunder City Press, Birmingham, AL,1983
 ==References==
-* [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Steven_Ford_Brown Steven Ford Brown] (January 16, 2011) Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia - accessed February 3, 2011
+* [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Steven_Ford_Brown Steven Ford Brown] (January 16, 2011) Wikipedia - accessed February 3, 2011
-* [http://lauramachado.wordpress.com/ Steven Ford Brown website]
+* [http://www.newsouthbooks.com/pages/category/steven-ford-brown/ Steven Ford Brown] author profile at New South Books
-* [http://www.newsouthbooks.com/pages/category/steven-ford-brown/ Steven Ford Brown at New South Books]
+* [http://www.somervilleartscouncil.org/node/1058/ Steven Ford Brown] profile at somervilleartscouncil.org
-* [http://www.somervilleartscouncil.org/node/1058/ Steven Ford Brown at Somerville, MA Arts Council]
-==Related Websites==
-* [http://stevenfordbrown.net/journalism/alabama-football-the-saban-way/ "The Saban Way: Alabama Will Defeat Texas In The Rose Bowl" (January 6, 2010)]
 * [http://jacketmagazine.com/18/wong-brown.html/ Yim Tam Lisa Wong,“Steven Ford Brown in conversation with Y. T. Wong," Jacket magazine (Australia), August 2002]
 * [http://www.leftcurve.org/lc30webpages/Foetry.html/ Louis E. Bourgeois, “Foetry.com And What Academia Doesn't Want You to Know About the Creative Writing Industry, An Interview with Steven Ford Brown," Left Curve magazine, Number 30, 2005]
 * [http://www.writersforum.org/news_and_reviews/blogs/blog-archive.html/article/2011/10/17/an-afternoon-with-transtr-mer-in-stockholm-by-steven-ford-brown/ "An Afternoon with Transtromer in Stockholm," Alabama Writers Forum Blog Archive, October 17, 2011]
-* [http://tomastranstromer.net/ Official Website of Tomas Tranströmer]
-* [http://www.newsouthbooks.com/pages/2008/01/18/steven-ford-brown-remembers-poet-angel-gonzalez/ "Steven Ford Brown remembers Spanish poet Ángel González", NewSouth Books]
+==External links==
+* [http://stevenfordbrown.net Steven Ford Brown] website
 {{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Steven Ford}}

Steven Ford Brown: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 11:11, 29 December 2022

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