Fiction
Critical Praise:
“You have an exceptionally keen narrative eye (among the best I have encountered at the agency), and your prose is poetic without being florid. Your characterization is utterly convincing. And I found the way you present the harsh environment as an antagonist that—aside from being deadly—induces extreme behaviors, both interesting and compelling.
—Kimberley Cameron, Reece Halsey Agency
Kristine and Owen’s romance is certainly fraught with enough fire and ice, sturm and drang, to intrigue even the most jaded reader . . . the Alaska background is fresh and fascinating and you have a real gift for evoking its awesome scenery and mysterious qualities . . . Julian Erasmus, Leland Mobley, and Girdy Killdeer are terrific comic creations and you have a sharp satiric eye for the near lethal political rivalries at the high school . . . the machinations of the logging company and the bitterness between the natives and loggers have the makings of dramatic social and personal conflicts.
—Jerry Gross, Editor/Author, Editors on Editing
Both Kristine Killdeer and Owen Woodson are wonderfully real characters, and I love the vivid background of the Alaskan wilds. You’ve certainly thrown your main characters into enough conflict to make this an exciting story. —Susan Crawford, Literary Agent
Your book has many of the characteristics of a publishable novel—an exotic setting full of dangers and great natural beauty, a love story, and an engaging criminal conspiracy putting both Owen and Kristine at risk.
—Leonard Tournet, Author
You have great imagination. I love the premise. The dialogue is fine, the characters, well-crafted, and the plot well-conceived.
—Jeff Kleinman, Graybill & English Literary Agency
Literary Criticism/ Cultural Memoir
Hemingway, Trauma and Masculinity: In the Garden of the Uncanny is at once a model of literary interpretation and a psycho-critical reading of Hemingway’s life and art. This books is a provocative and theoretically sophisticated inquiry into the traumatic origins of the creative impulse and the dynamics of identity formation in Hemingway. Building on a body of wound-theory scholarship, the books seeks to reconcile the tensions between opposing Hemingway camps, while moving beyond these rivalries into a broader analysis of the relationship between trauma, identity formation, and art in Hemingway.
Critical Praise:
“Stephen Gilbert Brown draws from his substantial knowledge of literature and psychology and blazes a new trail through Hemingway’s life and work. Brown is particularly nimble when analyzing the less prominent works, the dark corners of Hemingway’s career, which he mines to yield fascinating discoveries. Elegantly written and convincingly argued, Hemingway, Trauma, and masculinity: In the Garden of the Uncanny becomes in indispensable text in future discussions of Hemingway and the trauma that underlies his work.”
–Mark Cirino, Associate Professor, University of Evansville; Author, Hemingway: Thought in Action, and Hidden Hemingway.
Critical Praise:
“This is an original and unique work . . . an ingenious intertwining of theory and practice . . . at once a case-study, an ethnography, and a sustained theoretical examination . . . required reading in many graduate courses and seminars nationwide.”
–Gary A. Olson, Author, Provost and VP of Academic Affairs, Idaho State University.
“One of the clearest arguments for curricular diversity in secondary and post-secondary education that I have ever read”
—Irene Ward, KSU;
“Indispensable”
–Choice
“Engaging and thoughtful . . . of interest to Freireans, post/anti colonialists, and multiculturalists . . . a sound contribution to the profession . . . a welcome ands much needed addition”
—College Composition and Communication Dec ’00.
Brown’s first work of literary criticism, The Gardens of Desire: Marcel Proust and the Fugitive Sublime (SUNY 2004) was also highly acclaimed, having been reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement (London). To anyone interested in exploring the intersection between the life and art of Marcel Proust, this psycho-critical biography is a must read.
Critical Praise:
“This book is extremely well-written and highly readable”—Jefferson Humphries (LSU).
Described by one critic as a “tour de force,” Plato and Freire is a radical inquiry into the unexplored intersections between Ancient Rhetoric and Contemporary Teaching Practice, embodied in the careers of these two influential dissident scholars, whose life and work, though separated by 2,500 years, have much to say to one another. Secondary and Post-Secondary educators seeking the means and resources with which to enrich and enliven classroom instruction, will find much to hold and reward their interest in this book.
Critical Praise:
“A tour de force. The breadth of scholarship and the boldness of Brown’s claims . . . are nothing less than spectacular . . . . It’s a remarkable book, written in a crisp, readable style.”
—Victor Villanueva, author Boostraps, Chairperson, Auburn University.
“This work is theoretically sophisticated, original in the best sense of the word, and very well written . . . a major contribution to scholarship . . . a work that will become required reading to a new generation of scholars.”
–Gary A. Olson
