"My desire is not to direct or dictate an experience of the poem, but to study and open possibilities for perception."
Laynie Browne's (b. 1966) poetry explores notions of silence and the invisible, through the re-contextualization of poetic forms, such as sonnets (Daily Sonnets), tales (The Scented Fox), and letters (The Desires of Letters). Her current project, You Envelop Me, utilizes the elegy to investigate birth and loss within the context of the mourning process. "Attempts to illuminate once-hidden meanings are points of perforation, punctures in the fabric of writing," says Browne. "I consider form as a container, lens, garment, dwelling, and means of locomotion." Browne received her M.F.A. from Brown University in 1990. Her published works include nine collections of poetry, two novels, and a number of chapbooks. Her work has been anthologized in The Norton Anthology of Postmodern American Poetry, Ecopoetry: A Contemporary American Anthology, Poet's Choice, and elsewhere. She's a three-time recipient of the Gertrude Stein Award in Innovative American Poetry.
