Joel Brouwer

b. 1968
Joel Brouwer

Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, poet Joel Brouwer earned a BA from Sarah Lawrence College and an MA from Syracuse University. He is the author of several collections of poetry, including Off Message (2016), And So (2009); Centuries (2003), a National Book Critics Circle Notable Book; and Exactly What Happened (1999), winner of the Larry Levis Reading Prize from Virginia Commonwealth University. He has also published several chapbooks.

Brouwer has been awarded fellowships from the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation, and the Guggenheim Foundation. His essays and book reviews have appeared widely, including in AGNI, the Boston Review, the Harvard Review, and the New York Times Book Review.

He has taught at Southern Illinois University, and he currently teaches at the University of Alabama. He lives in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.