Meet Wynne Brown | Freelance writer / editor / graphic designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Wynne Brown and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Wynne, what do you want people to remember about you?
Having just celebrated my 72nd birthday a few days ago, this is a thought-thread I’ve been tugging at …

I want to be remembered as:
• someone who tried to give voice to forgotten / neglected / ignored stories. Not only the 1880s botanist and artist in my book, The Forgotten Botanist: Sara Plummer Lemmon’s Life of Science and Art, but also the Black journalist in Phoenix, the Hopi sculptor in the Oraibi Pueblo, the Chinese photographer in Tucson, the Mexican curandera in Clifton, and all the other amazing female pioneers in the third edition of Remarkable Arizona Women – so few remembered of so many forgotten!
But not just the human voices – also those of the disappearing and often-forgotten species within the natural world: the tiny freshwater Stephan’s beetle that hasn’t been seen since 1993, the Black-billed Magpie gone from Arizona, the Pacific seahorse on its way out, the Christmas Island skink now extinct. Again, so few of so many…

But I also want to be remembered as:
• someone compassionate who tried to stop and think before she spoke, who tried to remember that because words hold such power, to use them only for good …

I want to be remembered as:
• someone funny – but never at the expense or pain of others …

I want to be remembered as:
• someone who relished the outside world and was fed by it whether by hoof, by paddle, or by foot – and who treated it gently …

I want to be remembered as:
• someone lucky, lucky enough to have more than one tool to tell those forgotten stories – books, articles, poems, illustrations, and even po-artic narratives that lie at the intersection of words and art …

I want to be remembered as:
• someone who appreciated and didn’t waste those tools …

I want to be remembered as:
• someone brave, brave enough to take a chance on forgiveness, on re-invention – and most of all, brave enough to take a chance on love.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Probably the most consistent attribute of my work history would appear to be … inconsistency.

I am a writer/editor/graphic designer, which means that some days I craft articles or poems or book chapters. Some days my sole focus is helping someone tweak their writing to match their exact vision in the most effective way possible. Other days (and I can almost feel my brain creak as it switches over from words to images!) I am only thinking about the tone a certain font conveys or just the right color gradient that won’t swamp the message. And some days I wear all three hats, tossing each one aside as I exchange them.

Why take on three skills, each of which could be a single satisfying career? Initially, I chose that path so that, professionally, I could be a three-legged stool, with the hope that each leg would take up the burden of supporting my fiscal weight if the other two wilted.

But I also truly love all three activities, and I also love growing my ability in each one. Eventually, I realized that quality, that three-legged stoolness, is my brand.

As varied and inconsistent as those tasks might seem, they all support the same mission: to tell a story, whether that be a narrative about land use in the Southwest, a poem about a dysfunctional childhood, helping a would-be author tell the story of his father-in-law, or figuring out how to place the text of how brown snakes nearly decimated the native birds of Guam – in English and in CHamoru, one of the area’s Indigenous languages.

I joke that if I’d ever figured out what I wanted to be when I grew up, I’d be really good at it by now. Instead, what my clients get is a one-stop shop: someone who can help them figure out the story they’re trying to tell, and then how to structure it, and then how to polish it, and then how to present it visually, and how to publish it. Along the way, I filled my Rolodex (remember those?!), OK, I’ve gathered a contact list of people who can help, all of whom I’m happy to recommend because they are honorable humans, they know more than I do about the various pieces – and I trust them to give good advice.

Knowing when to ask for help and learning to do just that is an important skill as well – both in the workplace and in Life.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
There’s so much to do in Southern Arizona! And Tucson is a UNESCO City of Gastronomy, so the foodie possibilities are endless … but here’s a selection of some of my favorite eating locations:

Brunch: Poco & Mom’s, Locale, The Little One
Special-occasion restaurant: Le Rendezvous
Fried chicken AND doughnuts: Alvernon Donuts
Dinner: Feast, Jonathan’s Cork
Pizza, bar: Zona 78, Reilly Craft Pizza
Vietnamese: Pho Ngan
Thai: Tuk Tuk Thai
Mexican: El Charro
Chinese: Old Peking
Indian: Saffron
Italian: Gavi, Caruso’s, Mama Louisa’s
Bread: Barrio Bread
Ice cream: The Screamery, the Hub

In between eating, possible hikes and day trips include:
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
Bisbee – shop, explore, eat, maybe do the Copper Queen mine tour
Huachucas / Madera Canyon – hike
Mount Lemmon / Sabino Canyon
Cactus Forest Loop drive / Rincons
Catalina State Park – hike
Biosphere – visit
Chiricahua National Monument – hike

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
The writers and artists, too numerous to name, who constantly inspire me.

Librarians and archivists, particularly the amazing staff of Pima County Public Library.

My colleagues and friends of the Southwestern chapter of Editorial Freelance Association.

My grandmother, Wynne Byard Fooshee, who taught me to look at Art, to listen to Nature, and see and hear Language.

My husband, Dave Peterson, who is so perfect for me in so many ways.

Website: https://wynnebrown.com/

Twitter: @wynnebrown2

Image Credits
Dave Peterson (images of me) Chuck Corchran (owl image)