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, Black Warrior Review, Tusculum Review, Dummy Magazine, 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 and accomplished performer. Brown has made his living with numerous labor, kitchen, and art sector jobs and since 2016 has been leading a charitable foundation he helped co-found.
As a poetry performer, Brown weaves together recited poems with storytelling, personal history, and insights on writing and art-making. If you would like to invite Brown to perform or speak, please use the contact form below.
PUBLICATIONS
Book: Fellowship, Poems, Steve Brown, 2026
“Throne,” Making Waves: Temples & Prisons, 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
“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
Brown regularly performs at open mics in Michigan, including The Poetry Room at Robin Theater, Lansing, The Lit by Grand River Poetry Collective in Grand Rapids, and in Kalamazoo.
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
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022 New Sculpture, Prairie Ronde Gallery, Vicksburg, MI
2011 Faces, Helios, Jena, Germany
2007 Gather Change Gather, Schott Glasmuseum & Villa, Jena, Germany
2005 Explosion at the Plant, Lake Street Studio, Glen Arbor, MI
2005 New Work, The South Bend Regional Museum of Art, South Bend, IN
2004 The Thoreson Project, Glen Arbor Art Association, Glen Arbor, MI
2004 On the Surface, The College for Creative Studies Alumni Gallery, Detroit
PUBLIC ART PROJECTS AND NEW MEDIA
07-09 [COSHOCTON], the community of Coshocton, Pomerene Center for the Arts, OH
2008 Ich wusste nicht was ich ihm sagen soll, screenings in/at:
Concordia University, Montreal, Canada
Aktualisierungraum, Hamburg, Germany
University of Glasgow, Scotland
International Videoart Festival, Örebro, Sweden
2008 Kampf der Alten / The Fight of the Old, Kunsthalle H. G. Kessler, Weimar, Germany
2007 Verwirrender Faust / Confusing Faust, D.A.S Jugendtheater, Weimar Germany
2007 Wackelkontakt / Loose Contact, Jena Kunstverein, Jena, Germany
05-07 Dali’s Egg, performances and screenings in/at:
Barnsdall Art Park Theater, Hollywood, CA
Kalamazoo Animation Festival International, Kalamazoo, MI
Academy of Fine Arts, Stranger Than Fiction Festival, Helsinki, Finland
Indiana University, Perform.media festival, Bloomington, IN
High Desert Shorts International Film Festival, Pahrump, NV
The Lab, Stranger Than Fiction Festival, San Francisco, CA
2005 Names, University of North Carolina, Pembroke, NC
2005 Passing Through, Pomerene Center for The Arts, Coshocton, OH
2005 Failure In Gettysburg, Gettysburg Scenic Railway HQ, Gettysburg, PA
2003 Volume Activate, Bald Mountain Nature Preserve, Oakland Township, MI
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2009 POP Gallery, Culver City, CA
2008 Art Forum Berlin, represented by Pierogi Leipzig, Germany
2007 B.O.I.C.E Planning, Yokohama, Japan
Windsor Biennial, Art Gallery Windsor, Canada
2006 Wild Information Network, Hartwick College, Hartwick, NY
Drawing Into Painting, Ann Arbor Art Center, Ann Arbor, MI
CCS Centennial, Birmingham-Bloomfield Art Center, MI
2005 Actual Size Biennial, Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit, MI
Drawings, District Arts Gallery, Birmingham, MI
2004 Residents, Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, Otis, OR
DAM Biennial, Detroit Artist Market, Detroit, MI
2003 OSAICS Award Exhibition, Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, NJ
Thesis, Center Galleries, Detroit, MI
Emerging Artists, Batista Gallery, Ferndale, MI
Birmingham-Bloomfield Art Center, MI
The Art Center, Mt. Clemens, MI
CPOP Gallery/Whitney Restaurant, Detroit, MI
Saginaw Art Museum, Saginaw MI
2001 Crooked Tree Art Center, Petoskey, MI
Studio 23, Bay City, MI
EDUCATION
BFA with honors in Studio Art, The College for Creative Studies, Detroit 1999 – 2003
MFA with honors in Public Art, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Germany 2006 – 2008