GA Poet Gets $800,000 MacArthur Fellow ‘Genius Grant’

GEORGIA — A 48-year-old contemporary poet is among 22 new recipients of prestigious fellowships from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation known as “genius grants.”

Each of the fellows will receive a grant of $800,000 over five years to spend however they want. The fellows do not apply, and are not interviewed for or made aware of the award until it is announced. Instead, fellows are nominated and endorsed by their peers and communities through an open, years-long process overseen by the foundation.

Jericho Brown, of Atlanta, is the editor of “How We Do It: Black Writers on Craft, Practice and Skill (2023)” and “The Selected Shepherd (2024).”

At Emory University, Brown works as an English and creative writing professor for Emory’s Charles Howard Candler. In the past, he was an assistant professor of English at the University of San Diego.

“Brown writes with frankness and vulnerability about love, both filial and erotic. He explores the complexities of his identity as a Black gay man and expresses tenderness and devotion toward his mother and other Black women. In poems with astonishing lyrical beauty, Brown illuminates the experiences of marginalized people and shows the relevance and value of formal experimentation,” the MacArthur Foundation said.

Buzzfeed, The New Yorker, the Paris Review, the Atlantic, TIME Magazine, American Poetry Review and the New Republic have all published Brown’s poetry.

While each class is never an immediate response to any particular moment, sometimes themes do emerge, Marlies Carruth, director of the MacArthur Fellows Program, told The Associated Press.

“We have to see at least the variety and the strength and the number of nominations in the literary arts space as a response to the zeitgeist, the desire to tell stories and resurrect certain stories that have not been told,” said Carruth.

The foundation looks for people who will be “enabled” by the award, meaning they have both a track record of work but also the potential to produce additional extraordinary work, Carruth said

The foundation also strives to support people who collaborate and invest outside of their specific discipline.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.