title: Fleda Brown
text: # Fleda Brown
  
  Fleda Brown (born 1944 in Columbia, Missouri) is an American poet and author. She is also known as Fleda Brown Jackson.
  
  ## Biography
  
  Fleda Brown was born in Columbia, Missouri, and raised in Fayetteville, Arkansas. In 1978 she joined the University of Delaware English Department. There she founded the Poets in the Schools Program, which she directed for more than twelve years. She served as poet laureate of Delaware from 2001 to 2007, when she retired from the University of Delaware and moved to Traverse City, Michigan. She currently teaches in the Rainier Writing Workshop, a low-residency MFA program at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington. Her husband, Jerry Beasley, is also a retired English professor.
  
  One of Brown's poems, "If I Were a Swan", has been set for choir by Kevin Puts.
  
  ## Education
  
  * Ph.D. (English, Pre-1900 American Literature), University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, 1983
  * M.A. (English), University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, 1976
  * B.A. (English), University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, 1969
  