The Kenneth Wayne Brewer papers contains letters, poetry, and related items covering the life and career of Dr. Kenneth W. Brewer, a professor and poet at Utah State University, and the Utah poet laureate beginning in January of 2003. It is divided up into six different series: Correspondence, Poetry, Personal Writings, Professional Papers, Colleagues and Miscellaneous. The correspondence spans 1968 to 2000 when Dr. Brewer retired. The correspondence is both institutional and personal, though because of his friendships within the Western writing community and among Utah schools, these categories are often blurred. Occasionally the full name of a correspondent could not be determined. In those cases, the letters are listed by the only name known, e.g., Bill or Katie. If the correspondence was to an agency with which Dr. Brewer worked, that correspondence will be found with the items on that agency. The poetry is divided between individual poetry organized alphabetically and poetry collections likewise organized. The collection contains drafts and manuscripts. Published versions of these drafts along with poetry published in national poetry journals can be found in the Kenneth W. Brewer Book Collection. The collection contains personal essays and personal journals maintained by Dr. Brewer from the 1960s to the 1990s. The journals are divided between personal journals, in which Dr. Brewer wrote about his life and thoughts, and poetry journals, in which Dr. Brewer wrote poetry. Those writings that deal directly with theater, such as one-act plays, are included in Box 36 with other theater information. The collection also contains information about Dr. Brewer's teaching and mentoring of students as well as his numerous professional appointments and undertakings. In addition, the collection contains examples of poetry readings, both of his own poetry and of others, on audiotape and videotape. Finally, poetry and vitae are included from many Utah and Western poets, which Dr. Brewer gathered while working on the Utah centennial anthology. This collection covers not only the life and work Utah's second poet laureate, but also documents the larger field of Western American writing and the important figures within that community during the last quarter of the twentieth century. The final series in the collection contains an oversized box with various different items: business information on the Comedy Cantina he owned, various personal essays and poetry manuscripts, and minutes from the Utah Arts Council. A family photo album along with a few other photos have been removed and placed in a separate photo collection.

Addendum Scope and Content:

Material in this portion of the collection has been arranged to match the order in the original portion. Addendum Series I, Incoming Correspondence, is arranged alphabetically by sender and then chronologically. Some e-mails also include poetry that was sent to Dr. Brewer as an attachment. Incoming correspondence also contains e-mails and cards of encouragement from colleagues and friends after Dr. Brewer's diagnosis of pancreatic cancer as well as thank you cards for his poems and readings. Dr. Brewer's poetry submissions correspondence are also included here. Addendum Series II contains Dr. Brewer's poetry collection, arranged chronologically, poetry reading fliers, short stories, greeting cards printed with Dr. Brewer's poems, poems set to guitar music, short stories (also arranged alphabetically), and publications featuring Dr. Brewer's poems. Addendum Series III contains Dr. Brewer's personal writings, poetry and personal journals, and academic and daily planners, arranged chronologically. Addendum Series IV consists of professional papers, committees and boards Dr. Brewer served on, judging and reviewing he participated in, awards he received, as well as biographical and personal education. Addendum Series IV also contains some of Dr. Brewer's undergraduate, master's and PhD course work, handwritten notes on books, various financial papers, media reports about Dr. Brewer in addition to video and audiocassettes of his readings. Addendum Series V is made up of his colleagues’ work that also includes cassette recordings of a few readings, including Allen Ginsberg and May Swenson. Of special note, in those cases where we have both draft versions as well as final versions of Dr. Brewer's writings, both versions have been retained.