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Biography

Dr. Linda Beatrice Brown was born in Akron, Ohio. She is a graduate of Bennett College where she majored in French and English and graduated as valedictorian. She received a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship to pursue graduate studies at Case Western Reserve University where she completed her MA. She received her PhD from Union Institute and University, Cincinnati, Ohio focusing her studies on African American Literature and Creative Writing.

Dr. Brown has taught at Kent State University, University of North Carolina-Greensboro, and at Guilford College. She is presently the Willa B. Player Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Bennett College for Women where she teaches African American Literature and until this year was the director of the Honors Program. Like many modern writers, she divides her time between writing and teaching. In addition to her latest novel, Black Angels, Linda Beatrice Brown is the author of two other novels: Rainbow ‘Roun Mah Shoulder, a prize-winning book, and Crossing Over Jordan. She was awarded a Headlands Center for the Arts Residency by N.C. Arts Council in 1992. As a distinguished writer and professor, Dr. Brown continues to be an inspiration to her colleagues and family.

Dr. Brown usually writes about the African American experience, specifically the Black woman. She is also a poet and has been a guest lecturer at many schools, colleges and in different cities throughout the state of North Carolina. She has poetry in anthologies and magazines such as The Black Scholar, Ebony Junior, and the children’s magazine, Cricket. At fourteen she began writing and published first in Beyond the Blues, a poetry anthology when she was only nineteen.
Her writing reflects her varied interests. In 2002, Dr. Brown was a guest lecturer for the Greensboro Public Library Celebration “One City One Book,” where she gave a three part lecture series on Ernest Gaines’ A Lesson Before Dying, and the next year, a three-part lecture series on the novels of Toni Morrison. Her non-fiction includes The Long Walk, a History of the Presidency of Willa B. Player at Bennett College.

Plays include Wildfire: Black Hands, White Marble, which is the story of Edmonia Lewis, a black Indian sculptor who broke historical barriers with her art, performed in both Greensboro and Winston Salem. Kitchen Talk, performed at Bennett College, details the ordinary lives of African American families. Her third play, Congo’s River Song, was produced by the NC Museum of Art in 2001. “Dangerous Pretty” is a short story based on the musical life of New Orleans at the turn of the century, published in The Store of Joys in 1997. Dr. Brown’s novel Black Angels was the “Okra” pick for the 2009 annual conference of the South Carolina Independent Booksellers and was named one of the Best of the Best Books of 2009 by the Chicago Public Libraries.

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Publications, Readings, and Lectures

Books

A Love Song to Black Men. Broadside Press. 1975.

Rainbow ‘Roun Mah Shoulder. Ballantine Press. 1989.

Crossing Over Jordan, a novel. Ballantine Press. 1995.

The Long Walk: The Story of the Presidency of Willa B. Player at Bennett College. Bennett College Women’s Leadership Institute. 1999.

Articles:

“Beloved, A Book Review,” in Religion and Intellectual Life, vol.3, Spring, 1988.

“Treasure,” a short story in O. Henry Festival Stories, Transverse Press. 1995.

“Poetry,”in Word and Witness. Carolina Academic Press. 1999.

Drama:

“Congo’s River Song,” a one-act play produced by the North Carolina Museum of Art,Oct 13, 2001.

“Dangerous Pretty” Produced as a one-act play, North Carolina Museum of Art, 1999.

“Dangerous Pretty”, fiction in The Store of Joys, ed. Houston Paschal. The North Carolina Museum of Art. 1997.

Literary Readings:

Reading: Shrine of the Black Madonna, Atlanta, Georgia, Aug 1996.

Reading: Country Book Shop Southern Pines, NC September, 1996.

Lectures on Toni Morrison, One City One Author, “Greensboro Celebrates Toni Morrison.” Feb. 20, 2007; Feb. 27, 2007.

Lectures:

Lecture: “Women in History, Fact or Fiction” Livingstone College. Salisbury, NC. March14, 2000.

Lecture and Reading: Reynolda House, Winston Salem, NC March 30, 1996.

Lecture: Community Foundation Awards, Diversity Inc. March 12, 2008.

Lecture and Reading: Davidson County Public Library, Lexington, NC, April 2009.