Jason Brown is an American writer who writes primarily about Maine and New England. He has published two collections of short stories and has a third forthcoming in October 2019. His fiction has appeared in magazines and anthologies including Harper's, The Atlantic and The Best American Short Stories.
After its initial publication in the Mississippi Review, his story "Driving the Heart" was selected for The Best American Short Stories 1996. The story later appeared in the 2012 collection Boston Noir 2: The Classics. In 1999, Brown's debut collection was published. The New York Times described Driving the Heart and Other Stories as "bleak yet penetrating," adding that "each of Brown's elegant stories echoes with the same quiet despair." The 13 stories are mostly set in and around Portland, Maine, involving characters affected by tragic experiences past and present. Driving the Heart was a starred review in Publishers Weekly, where it was called an "extraordinary debut collection."
Brown's second collection of 11 loosely linked short stories, Why the Devil Chose New England for His Work: Stories, came out in 2007. The 11 stories set in the fictional town of Vaughn in central Maine are linked by geography and tone, with "weary, complicated souls" of all ages. With the changes in narrative point of view within some of the stories, Brown has said he was influenced by the narration in the films of Terrence Malick – Days of Heaven and The Thin Red Line in particular. Some of the stories were originally published in magazines including Harper's, Epoch, Open City and The Atlantic. The book was given an A- by Entertainment Weekly, and was a starred review in Publishers Weekly. The Los Angeles Times called it "an exceptionally beautiful and devastating book." It was a suggested summer reading by NPR in 2009. The New Yorker said, "The narrators of Brown’s second book of stories are mostly watchers—witnesses to sordid events in the fictional town of Vaughn, Maine. Through their eyes, the familiar routines of small-town life are transmogrified into emblematic ugliness. Some of the stories deal with Maine’s twin preoccupations with boats and lumber, but the strongest anatomize the town with stunning emotional precision." Three of Brown's stories were named among the Best American Short Stories series "100 Other Distinguished Stories" in 1997, 2005 and 2010. His story "Wintering Over" was published in The Southern Review in 2012.
''A Faithful But Melancholy Account of Several Barbarities Lately Committed''
Brown's third collection of stories, a novel in stories, chronicles the comic misfortunes of the Howland family of Maine and will be published in October 2019 as the first collection in a new short fiction series created by Missouri Review Books.
Teaching
Brown previously taught creative writing at Stanford University as a Jones lecturer, and at the University of Arizona's creative writing MFA program. He is currently an associate professor at the University of Oregon's creative writing MFA program.
