Artistic Director Rebecca Brown
We are honored to have Rebecca Brown guiding literature programs at Centrum.
City Lights published Rebecca Brown's tenth book of prose, The Last Time I Saw You, in 2005. The End of Youth, (City Lights) and Excerpts From A Family Medical Dictionary (University of Wisconsin Press) came out in 2003. Excerpts were published by Granta, UK, in February 2004. She is the author of six other books of fiction including The Gifts of the Body, The Terrible Girls, Annie Oakley's Girl, The Haunted House, The Children’s Crusade, and What Keeps Me Here.
Brown's work has been awarded the Boston Book Review Award for fiction, The Lambda Literary Award, The Pacific Northwest
Booksellers' Award, and a Washington State Governor’s Award. It has
been widely anthologized, including stories in the Norton Anthology of Literature by Women.
It has been published in Great Britain and translated into Danish,
Norwegian, German, Italian and Dutch. Four of her books have been
translated into Japanese where they are published to much acclaim. She is
part of a group called the Seattle Research Institute that does
readings, lectures and publication. With Robert Corbett,
she co-edited Experimental Theology, an anthology that
contains poetry, fiction, essays, academic stuff and theater.
Brown collaborates frequently with artists in different disciplines. In 2005, she wrote a libretto for BetterBiscuitDance Company--a dance opera. Also in 2005, her first two act play, The Toaster, premiered at the New City Theater in Seattle. Her book The Terrible Girls was adapted for theater by About Face Theater in Chicago and performed there in 2001. The Los Angeles New Short Fiction Series adapted four pieces from The End of Youth for performance in November 2003. Brown also does a series of irreverent public talks sponsored by the Seattle Opera that offer pop culture/feminist/literary and goofy analysis of opera. With painter Nancy Kiefer, she did a book of text and image called Woman in Ill Fitting Wig.
Brown has read on book tours across the USA and in Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, Austria and Japan. She has taught in numerous settings, including the University of Washington, Extension, Pacific Lutheran University, Naropa University in Colorado, prisons, senior citizens' homes, libraries, and bars. For two years she was Writer-in-Residence at the Richard Hugo House Literary Center in Seattle where she served as Senior Teacher, met community members for writing consultations, and curated an eclectic reading/performance series. She has also curated readings for The Jack Straw Foundation, Red and Black Books, and her local NPR affiliate, served on selection panels for the Millay Arts Colony, The King County Arts Commission, the Bumbershoot Arts Festival, and the Washington State Arts Commission (where she championed the work of both traditional and non-mainstream writing). She has been awarded residencies at the Yaddo Colony, the Hawthornden Castle Writing Retreat in Scotland, the MacDowell Colony, Centrum, The Millay Colony, and Hedgebrook Cottages for Writers.
For many years her criticism, reviews, and essays appeared in the Seattle-based arts weekly The Stranger. Brown has lived in London and Italy and now makes her home in Seattle with her spouse, their cats, and an impressive collection of rock-n-roll, classical, and weird CDs.
