Steve Brown was raised in Metro Detroit and studied art in Detroit and Germany where his essay collection Glänze, Gespenst! was published in 2014. He is the author of the poetry collections Trample & Sew, News of Need, and Fellowship. His essays, stories, and poems have appeared in Witness, DIAGRAM, Public Art Dialogue, and elsewhere, garnering two Pushcart Prize nominations. Brown has been awarded residencies at the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, Prairie Ronde Residency, and elsewhere, and received grants from the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation among others. He is also an award-winning visual artist. Brown has made his living with numerous labor, kitchen, and art sector jobs, but since 2016 has led a charitable foundation he helped found.
PUBLICATIONS
“Something Like Prayer,” Comstock Review, Vol. 40, 2027 forthcoming
“Search Party,” Midwest Review, 2027 forthcoming
“Throne,” Making Waves: Temples & Prisons, 2026 forthcoming
“Narrow Gauge Road,” The Poetry Society of Michigan Five-Year Anthology, 2026 forthcoming
Book: Fellowship, Poems, Steve Brown, 2026
“Halo” and “Still Home,” Celery City Review, Winter Edition 2026
“The Betsie at Lake Michigan,” Dunes Review, 29.2, Winter Issue, 2026
Book: News of Need, Poems, Steve Brown, 2025
Book: Trample & Sew, Poems, Steve Brown, 2025
Book: Glänze, Gespenst!, Verlage Haffmans & Tolkemitt, Berlin, 2014 (German/y)
“The Enlarged Heart,” Northwind, (2013)
“A Burgeoning Life,” Witness, Issue XXVI No. 1, Spring Issue, 2013
“The Infinite Carcass,” The Tusculum Review, Spring Issue, 2013
“The Neighborhood Machine,” Juked, Print Issue #10, 2013
“Pferdekopf,” Lautschrift, Winter Issue, 2012, (German/y)
“Hostage Valley,” Cerise Press,Vol. 4 Issue 11, 2012
“Wiedergutmachung,” hEFt Magazin, Issue # 29, 2012 (German/y)
“Old Pink Kitty,” Revolution House, Vol. 2.2., 2012
“Some Say Andy Griffith Had What It Takes,” DIAGRAM, Issue 12.4, 2012
“Laundry Night, Coshocton,” and “River Fishing Scene,” The Dunes Review, Summer 2012
“Memory Hole,” Northwind Magazine, Summer Issue, 2012
“Geiseltalsee,” DUMMY, Issue #35, 2012 (German/y)
“An Audience of the Liberated,” Public Art Dialogue, Special Issue Summer, 2012
“The Soul of Boiling,” Word Riot, Summer Issue, 2012
“Klarschiff,” Frühstück mit Axt, anthology published by Neues Leben, 2012 (German/y)
“Youth Suite, Five Memoirs,” Educe, Issue 1, 2012
“Rest Stop Apologia,” Black Warrior Review, Issue 38.2, 2012
“Dirty Old Gentleman,” J Journal, 2012
“The Day Planner,” The Dunes Review, Winter Issue 2012
“Remedial Futurism,” Otis Nebula,Issue 4, 2012
“After We Agreed Not To,” Allotrope,Issue 3, 2011
“Reject Interesting People,” The Destroyer, Issue 1, 2011
“A Retired Doctor,” Driftwood, Issue 10, 2011
Book: Body Palimpsest, Stories for Nohra, limited-edition ill. hardcover, Bauhaus-Universität, 2008
“Gather Change Gather,” the art catalog Wackelkontakt, Bauhaus-Universität, 2007
Book: [COSHOCTON], Pomerene Center for the Arts, 2007
Book: What Ever Happened to Elena Borowski?, limited-edition, Bauhaus-Universität, 2007
LECTURES AND READINGS
5/16/2026 Terry Todd International Speaker Series, Kalamazoo Nature Center, Kalamazoo, MI
5/1/2026 Featured Author, The May Day Show, Book Suey, Hamtramck, MI
4/25/2026 Featured Author, Pulp & Press Lit Fest, Vicksburg, MI
4/17/2026 The Art of Verse and Sound, MSU School of Music featuring RCAH Center for Poetry
2/15/2026 Dunes Review, Volume 29, Issue 2, release reading
1/16/2026 Prairie Ronde Artist Gallery, Vicksburg, MI
11/14/2025 Crooked Tree Art Center, “Ekphrasis 2”, Traverse City, MI
10/25/2025 Paint Creek Center for the Arts, Rochester, MI
10/16/2025 The Wendell Anderson Jr Auditorium, College for Creative Studies, Detroit
10/11/2025 The Book Mark, Ludington, MI
9/25/2025 The Elizabeth Lane Oliver Center for the Arts, Frankfort, MI
9/11/2025 The Beaver Island District Library, St. James, MI
8/21/2025 Dormouse Theatre, Kalamazoo, MI
08/07/2025 Crooked Tree Art Center, Traverse City
08/2012 Dune Review volume 16, Issue 2, release party, Glen Arbor Art Association
06/2012 hEFt #29 release party, Erfurt, Germany
06/2012 Thuringian Literature Festival, Burg Ranis Pösneck, Germany
05/2012 Frühstück mit Axt book tour, Literaturhaus Magdeburg, Kunstforum Halle, Germany
9/2011 Radio F.R.E.I, Freier Rundfunk Erfurt International, Erfurt, Germany
08/2011 Das Fundbüro, Leipzig, Germany
05/2011 Jenseits des Wachstums / The Other Side of Growth, Technical University Berlin
01/2010 Another Country, Berlin, Germany
07/2008 Stadtbucherei, Weimar, Germany
06/2008 Spartanheim, Nohra, Germany
06/2008 The Gerber, Weimar, Germany
08/2007 Guest Speaker, West Shore Community College, MI
10/2006 Graduate Lecturer, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Germany
09/2005 Guest Speaker, Lake Street Studio, MI
10/2004 Guest Speaker, Glen Arbor Art Association, MI
AWARDS AND NOMINATIONS
2025 SeedKeepers Artist and Naturalist Residency, Beaver Island, MI
2022 Prairie Ronde Artist Residency, The Mill, Vicksburg, MI
2013 Michigan Writers Cooperative Press contest finalist for chapbook “Trample & Sew”
2012 Pushcart Prize nomination from Educe for nonfiction text “Youth Suite: Five Essays”
2012 Pushcart Prize nomination from J Journal for nonfiction text “Dirty Old Gentleman”
2011 New Michigan Press, Innovative fiction contest, finalist, “Audience of the Liberated”
2009 Ohio Arts Council, Arts Innovation Grant
2007 Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation Grant
2005 Artrain USA, Bob and Maggie Allesee Artist Fellowship
2004 Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, Otis, OR, Artist Residency
2004 Glen Arbor Arts Association, Glen Arbor, MI, Artist Residency
2003 International Sculpture Center, OSAICS Award
2002 Detroit Institute of Art, Art on the Move Residency
EDUCATION
MFA with honors in Public Art, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Germany 2006 – 2008
BFA with honors in Studio Art, The College for Creative Studies, Detroit 1999 – 2003
SERVICE
Board President of Michigan Writers (2026-2027)