This Pulitzer-Winning Writer Created a New Poetic Form — Inspired by Houston

This Pulitzer-Winning Writer Created a New Poetic Form — Inspired by Houston

Jericho Brown

THE UNIVERSITY OF Houston has had an embarrassment of riches when it comes to poets taking home big prizes over the past year. First, UH grad Jericho Brown won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for his poetry collection The Tradition, then UH Creative Writing Program faculty member francine j. harris won the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Award for Here is the Sweet Hand. On Monday, April 26, you'll have a rare opportunity to see the two prize winners in conversation, when the Inprint Margarett Root Brown Reading Series hosts Brown for a virtual event. Starting at 7pm, Brown will read from his work, and this will be followed by a conversation with Harris.


Brown lived in Houston from 2002 to 2008 and received a PhD from UH in creative writing. He now teaches at Emory. When he won the Pulitzer, the prize committee called his work "a collection of masterful lyrics that combine delicacy with historical urgency in their loving evocation of bodies vulnerable to hostility and violence."

Shortly after winning the Pulitzer, Brown told theHouston Chronicle that his years in the city had been transformative for him. He moved here after living in New Orleans, and one of the first things he did was change his name. He then found a community — a Black gay underground scene — which gave him great joy. "I lived near Hobby Airport. I thought it was a great apartment. The rent was cheap. I didn't want to leave the diversity of Houston," he told theChronicle. "When I think of Houston, I don't think of the creative writing program. I think of all the fun I had. A party city."

He even created a poetic form inspired by the city, one he dubbed "The Duplex." It involves couplets and a complicated scheme of lines that echo each other. Like swimming through the heat on a summer day in Houston, it creates a peculiar kind of hypnotic mood.

Here is a sample from one of four Duplex poems that appear in The Tradition.

I begin with love, hoping to end there.

I don't want to leave a messy corpse.

I don't want to leave a messy corpse

Full of medicines that turn in the sun.

Some of my medicines turn in the sun.

Some of us don't need hell to be good.

Don't miss Monday's opportunity to explore the poetic depths of your city.

People + Places
Thrive & Inspire: ‘I Believe in Having Employees that Are Happy,’ Says Wilvin J. Carter

Wilvin J. Carter, The Law Offices of Wilvin J. Carter P.C.

WHAT'S THE SECRET to running a successful business? I have found that there is no real secret to running a business. I abide by a set of principles that have allowed my business to grow and flourish for the past 15 years. First, I make sure that our team is competent on the laws and the facts surrounding all my clients’ individual cases. Secondly, I am always staying abreast of the public’s temperature as it relates to hot button topics that may affect prospective jurors who will be determining the outcome of my clients’ cases. More importantly, my clients’ feelings and needs are always at the forefront of our legal representation of them. Our clients’ happiness is the most important aspect of my business. My law firm obtains excellent results for our clients and in return, they refer their friends and family to us for legal representation. Client satisfaction is not a secret.

Keep ReadingShow less

THE MEANING OF “cool” evolves. In the ’50s you might have thought greasers were cool, with their leather jackets à la Danny Zuko. In the ’70s, a long-haired activist or a Studio 54 reveler in Halston. In the ’80s, a Wall Street master of the universe?

Keep ReadingShow less
People + Places

Rosé Soiree

THE WOODLANDS IS the place to be June 5-11, when a lineup culinary greats and wine luminaries converge to offer foodie-friendly events with entertainment ranging from fashion shows to speaker panels. This year’s theme is Wine + Food = Art, which will celebrate the creativity found in the wine and food industry.

Keep ReadingShow less
Food