Creative Writing Student Named the George Bennett Writer in Residence

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Joshua Camp Brown (left); George E. Bennett in 1923 (right)

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Joshua Camp Brown, a poet and 2013 graduate of the University of Arkansas programs in creative writing and translation, has been named the George Bennett Writer in Residence for 2013-14. Awarded by Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, N.H., this is one of the nation’s most selective and sought-after postgraduate fellowships.

“This fellowship is a tremendous opportunity—a year to write, full-time, no strings attached. It’s extremely prestigious, and it’s the best thing that could happen for a writer like Josh who has a family and a manuscript to finish and a tremendous well of talent that he’s just beginning to tap,” said Davis McCombs, director of the creative writing program. “This will launch his career.”

Launching literary careers is what Exeter had in mind when it established the fellowship in 1968 through a gift from alumnus Elias Kulukundis. The Writer in Residence program provides a stipend of $13,650 as well as housing and meals for a writer just establishing his or her career, with a manuscript under way. No teaching duties or other formal responsibilities are required of as part of the fellowship.

Brown was selected from hundreds of applicants nationwide—not only poets but also writers of fiction, non-fiction, and playwrights. Past recipients of the fellowship include fiction writers Nam Le and Laura Moriarty and poet Ilya Kaminsky.

Brown will work on a book of poetry during his year at Exeter.  The collection has grown out of his master’s thesis and is about the birth of bluegrass from the older musical tradition of black minstrel shows. Brown is a bluegrass musician and mandolin player. His knowledge of this musical subject has opened a door to address issues of race in a way completely new, intimate, and nuanced, according to McCombs, who characterizes Brown’s poetry as complex, subtle, yet filled with voice and energy.

Should he finish this manuscript, Brown says, he’ll begin work on his next project—a collection that draws inspiration from the life and legend of Buffalo Bill and his Wild West Show.

“I guess what I’m most looking forward to is the amount of time I can put into my poetry,” said Brown. “As a father, as a student and a teacher, my attention over the past four years has been pulled in so many directions. This is a chance to focus, one hundred percent, on writing and see where it takes me.”

Brown’s poems have appeared in The Louisville Review (under J. Camp Brown) as well as Juked, Nashville Review and Prick of the Spindle. Previous honors include the 2012 Arkansas Arts Council Fellowship and the Felix McKean Fellowship. He received a master of fine arts in poetry in 2013 from the department of English in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.

Accompanying Brown are his wife Shannon and sons Landon, 13, and Finis, 1.