Brown Receives Award and Elected to Position
By Jillian Ellis
Dr. Kevin Brown, professor of English at Lee University, was recently honored by Snake Nation Press and Sigma Tau Delta, an international English honor society.
Brown received the Violet Reed Haas Award from Snake Nation Press for his new book of poems “A Lexicon of Lost Words.”
“I use [lost] words as titles for the poems, interpreting them in a metaphorical sense,” said Brown. “My poem ‘Acnestis’ deals with someone trying to remember things from his childhood and trying to remember what to say to a woman he loved, but who has left him.”
According to his editor, “Brown leads us into his childhood, into his relationships and into his take on missionaries that is funny and serious. Many of the poems have that edge, funny but serious, as the words themselves do.”
The book is based on words from the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) that have fallen out of use. Brown found the words while reading Ammon Shea’s book “Reading the OED.”
Brown was recently elected to a four-year term as Southern Regent for Sigma Tau Delta.
As one of the six regents within the Sigma Tau Delta system, Brown’s duties will include promoting the development and activities of the society within its specific regions. As members of the Board of Directors, regents serve on standing and ad hoc committees, act as liaisons between the chapters of their regions and the central office, and work with their student representative and associate student representative to encourage chapter development and activities, and assume responsibility for over 850 active chapters.
“I am thrilled to be able to take on this responsibility of representing our Southern Region,” said Brown. “Our chapter has been one of the most active for several years, and I hope to bring that experience to the national level.”
Brown received his doctorate in English from the University of Mississippi and his Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Murray State University. He earned a master’s in English and a master’s in Library and Information Science from East Tennessee State University and the University of Alabama, respectively. He received his bachelor’s in English from Milligan College.
Brown is the only member of Lee’s faculty to be awarded each of three major faculty awards: Excellence in Advising (‘10), Excellence in Scholarship (‘11), and Excellence in Teaching (‘12).
Brown’s book can be purchased at http://www.kevinbrownwrites.com/ or http://www.snakenationpress.org/.
