Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Bill Brown

"In Praise of Winter Trees"

FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: Bill Brown, a native of Dyersburg, Tennessee, was the author of many poetry collections, including Late Winter, The News Inside, and The Cairns. Brown also spent much of his life nurturing the work of other writers, chiefly during his years as a teacher at Nashville’s Hume-Fogg High School. He died on December 17, 2023.

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“Upon Waking”

Book Excerpt: The Headless Angel

Bill Brown is the author of 12 poetry collections. During the past 30 years, he has published hundreds of poems and articles in literary journals and anthologies. In 2011 the Tennessee Writers Alliance named him Tennessee Writer of the Year. He lives in Greenbrier.

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“When the Dust Settles”

Bill Brown grew up in West Tennessee ten miles from the Mississippi River. He is the author of eight poetry collections and a writing textbook. Formerly the director of the writing program at Hume-Fogg Academic High School in Nashville, he was named a Distinguished Teacher in the Arts in 1995 by the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts and the 2011 Writer of the Year by the Tennessee Writers Alliance. His latest book is The News Inside. “When the Dust Settles” is from his 2008 collection, Late Winter.

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“The Cairns ”

Book Excerpt: The Cairns: Poems

Bill Brown is the author of ten poetry collections. During the past thirty years, he has published hundreds of poems and articles in literary journals and anthologies. He will read from his new collection, The Cairns, at Parnassus Books in Nashville on January 12.

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“Don’t Hang Up”

Book Excerpt: Morning Window

Bill Brown is the author of nine poetry collections and a textbook. His work has appeared in Potomac Review, Southern Humanities Review, Prairie Schooner, North American Review, Southern Poetry Review, Rattle, and River Styx, among others.

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“Elemental”

November 7, 2014 Bill Brown grew up in West Tennessee ten miles from the Mississippi River. He is the author of nine poetry collections and a creative-writing textbook. His new book of poems, Elemental, has just been released. He will read from it at Parnassus Books in Nashville on November 8, 2014, at 2 p.m.

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