Lee Ann Brown is an American poet-publisher. She founded Tender Buttons Press in 1989. Brown has published a poetry collection, Polyverse (1999), and several books, including The Sleep that Changed Everything (2003), Crowns of Charlotte (2013), along with In the Laurels, Caught (2013).
Tender Buttons
Brown chose Tender Buttons as the name for her press in tribute to Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons. Upon its birth, Tender Buttons was the only press that focused on experimental poetry by women, other than Kelsey St. Press. Through publishing work for Harryette Mullen’s books, Brown opens the thinking and discussion of women’s writing, race, and gender for Tender Buttons. Today, the press still aims to provide a platform for “publish[ing] the best in experimental women’s writing,” and its website serves to disseminate for “the generation of generations.”
