G reg Brownderville, who was recently awarded the Porter Prize for poetry, will speak on the Ouachita Baptist University campus April 7 at 8:30 p.m., at the Elrod Center.
Brownderville, a 1999 graduate of Ouachita, is the youngest person ever to receive the award. He also is a two-time winner of the Bondurant Prize for Poetry.
The Porter Prize is considered one of the most prestigious and lucrative literary awards in Arkansas. Brownderville was nominated on the strength of his book Deep Down in the Delta, a collection of his original poems peppered with folktales he gathered in Arkansas
Dr. Johnny Wink, a professor of English at Ouachita, described Brownderville as “a marvelous student” during his years at OBU. In addition to his writing skills, Wink noted that Brownderville was a “wonderful listener.”
Brownderville is also a blues musician and an accomplished harmonica player. He and his brother Eric have formed several bands. Brownderville has published a considerable body of work in journals and magazines such as the Oxford American and Measure. Primarily a poet, Brownderville is also a folklorist and a writer of fiction, creative nonfiction and literary criticism.
Brownderville, who grew up in Pumpkin Bend, Ark., majored in English while at Ouachita. He then went on to graduate school at the University of Mississippi.
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