Kenneth Wayne Brewer was born on November 28, 1941, in Indianapolis, Indiana. Shortly after his birth, his father, Ulyss Brewer, deployed for World War II where he served most of his time fighting in the Philippines. After his father's deployment, Brewer and his mother, Edna Juanita Virt Brewer, moved in with his maternal grandmother, Mary Belle Virt.

After returning from the War in 1945, his father aspired to be a boxer but due to an injury he drove freight trucks in Indianapolis instead. Eventually he became an office manager for A & H Trucking Co. His mother worked as a typist for the same firm and his grandmother was a gift wrapper for a department store in Indianapolis. Because of his parents' schedules, Brewer was largely raised by his grandmother. He eventually graduated from Thomas Howe High School where he earned mostly B's and C's and participated in football and the ROTC.

Brewer attended Butler University for a year in 1959 before transferring to New Mexico Western College (now Western New Mexico University) in Silver City, New Mexico. He played football until a leg injury ended his career. He graduated in 1965 with a Bachelor of Arts in English and Secondary teaching. In 1967 he graduated with a Master of Arts from New Mexico State University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Utah in 1973.

Dr. Brewer began teaching poetry at Utah State University in 1968. During his career at USU he wrote and published poetry extensively, and he eventually gained national attention being included in national anthologies and several listings of prominent American poets. He retired in the spring of 2000, after 32 years of teaching. He was named the Utah Poet Laureate in January 2003.

Ken married in 1964, and had two children, Kimberly Diane (Marsing) in 1966 and Jonathan Keith in 1969. Dr. Brewer died on March 15, 2006 following a nine-month battle with pancreatic cancer.