like deep: Poem Selected as Finalist in the 2011 Third Coast Poetry Prize

Contact/Publication Info

Mark Jay Brewin, Jr.

2706 Cornucopia Ave

Vineland, NJ 08361

T 856.305.2528

mark.jay.brewin.jr@gmail.com

www.likedeep.blogspot.com

Education:

Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, Master of Fine Arts Degree in Poetry, 2008-2011.

Elon University, Bachelor of Arts Degree in English (Dual Majors in English and Art, with Concentrations in Creative Writing and Photography), 2004-2008.

Awards:

Recipient of Research Grant, awarded by Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, exchange with National University of Ireland-Galway, Spring Semester, January-May 2011.

Honorable Mention in Academy of American Poets Prize, “Jersey Devil,” Judged by Maurice Manning.

Winner of 2010 Yellowwood Poetry Prize at the Yalobusha Review, “Our Lady of Mount Carmel,” judged by Beth Ann Fennelly, Yalobusha Review, The University of Mississippi.

Poetry Manuscript Selected as Finalist for the 2009 New Letters Literary Award.
Semi-Finalist in 2009 New Millennium Poetry Contest, “Fidel Castro Visits a Frat Party,” New Millennium Writings.

Finalist in 2009 Guy Owen Poetry Prize, “Burning Down the Camper,” Judged by David Wagoner, Southern Poetry Review, Armstrong Atlantic State University.

Winner of 2009 Delaware Bay Days Poetry Competition, “True Oysters,” Bayshore Discovery Project.

Finalist in NC State Poetry Contest for “Todo Que Saben Es Trabajo”, North Carolina State University, Judged by Peter Makuck, Spring 2008.

Fredrick Hartmann Award for Poetry for “Turning Over,” Judged by Eric Pankey, Fall 2007.

Elon University, Creative Studies Grant, 2007-08 Academic Year.
Coraddi Literary Magazine, Best Overall Literary Piece for “Turning Over,” Summer 2007.
Judge Warren Scholarship, Awarded Spring 2007.
Fredrick Hartmann Award for Poetry for “Effigy,” Judged by John Balaban, Fall 2006.

Publications:

Cold Mountain Review, “The Pecking Order.” Appalachian State University, Spring/Summer 2011.

The Pinch, “Milford Sound.” The University of Tennessee at Memphis, Spring/Summer 2011.

The Greensboro Review, “The Root Whiskers.” University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Spring/Summer 2011.

South Carolina Review, “His Grandmother as a Wind Chime.” Clemson University, Spring/Summer 2011.

North American Review, “Scrap Iron.” The University of Northern Iowa at Cedar Falls, Spring 2011.

Quiddity, “Palace Depression.” Benedictine University at Springfield, Spring 2011.
The Labletter, “Standing in the Atlantic Ocean with Tesla’s Pigeon.” Oregon Lab, Spring 2011.

Milk Money, “By the Margin of Water” and “Bivalve, Cumberland County.” Fall/Winter 2010.

Poet Lore, “Midnight Shift.” The Writer’s Center, Spring 2011.
Los Angeles Review, “Jersey Devil” and “From These Split Ends.” Fall/Winter 2010.
Copper Nickel, “Field Lessons.” The University of Colorado-Denver, Fall/Winter 2010.

The Pinch, “The Group” and “Our Lady of the Water Glass.” The University of Tennessee-Memphis, Fall 2010.

River Oak Review, “What Einstein Saw Before Typing Out His Theory of Relativity.” Elmhurst College, Spring 2010.

Yalobusha Review, “Our Lady of Mount Carmel.” The University of Mississippi, Winter/Spring 2010.

Iron Horse Literary Review, “On Peeling Skin.” Texas Tech University, Winter 2009.
Southern Poetry Review, “Burning Down the Camper.” Armstrong Atlantic State University, Summer 2009.

Packingtown Review, “A History of Nut Allergies.” University of Illinois at Chicago, Spring 2009.

New Delta Review, “Fidel Castro Visits a Frat Party.” Louisiana State University, Spring 2009.

The Allegheny Review, “Todo Que Saben Es Trabajo.” Allegheny College, 2008.
Colonnades Art and Literary Journal, “Growing Up in East Vineland” and “Turning Over.” Elon University, 2008.

Coraddi Summer Arts and Literary Magazine, “Effigy.” UNC-Greensboro, 2007.
Colonnades Art and Literary Journal, “The Mariner.” Elon University, 2007.

Waxing Poetic, Or--more fondly--"My Artist Statement"

Whenever my family would go out, shopping at the mall, restaurant dinners, theme parks, grocery pickup and farmers markets, it seemed there would begin a conversation with strangers. My grandmother—who I considered the worst offender of this—could be anywhere, in the waiting line of any department store, and would discuss the day’s plans and happenings (what menopause was like, or the way she still had to hold my hand up until fourth grade) with the lady behind us balancing an arm of flannel shirts, the man nonchalantly trying to purchase lingerie.

However it happened—nature or nurture—I started these conversations of my own, opened my mouth and shared my thoughts with whoever was near me, listened intently to the small anecdotes of how a young nephew soiled himself at his classmate’s birthday party, or the way a wife tossed her hair when she folded laundry. This type of dialoguing became a fuel for my art, especially my writing at first. My poetry and prose would act like little vehicles for these experiences I was given. When I picked up photography, it too served as an entirely new visual mean of documenting these people that were so willing to share of their own personal selves, their specific happenings.

As my capturing and documenting started to fuse together, once my writing and image making seemed to speak in similar ways, I began to look into the heart of these small, simple talks and what the nature of these miniature relationships really were. When I would photograph subjects, I would also pen in their stories in an accompanying notebook.

In my latest work, The Woodrow Jefferson Project, I tried to see if I could have a “waiting line conversation” with personal documents that were left in a thrift store bible. Similar to the snippets of someone’s life I would get in the verbal exchanges I had, I decided to build personal intimacy off of all of the paperwork I was afforded and chose to follow, research and discover who this person was, how they lived, what they were like. Early own, the project became a voyeuristic experiment to measure how close I could get to a complete stranger, how much I could ever know about someone, how invested and personally involved I could get to the subject. Before long I was getting certified documents from the Register of Deeds, picking through the garbage of his closest living relatives and cataloguing playground equipment I lifted from the churches he belonged to.

What I want to highlight in my current and upcoming projects is how uncomfortably close anyone can get to a past through the remnants and wake we leave, and how fictionalized and distant our interactions really are, to show how many truths and fictions we can get from any little interaction we have.

like deep

Friday, April 1, 2011

Poem Selected as Finalist in the 2011 Third Coast Poetry Prize

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