Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Kimberly Johnson

After hearing Kimberly Johnson read, I was intrigued and decided to find out a little bit more. She is the author of Leviathan With a Hook (2002) and A Metaphorical God (2008).  Slate Magazine published "Marking the Lambs" (November 21, 2006) and that web page also features Johnson reading her poem.  Last week I heard her reading from a series of poems based on the military alphabet.  Undoubtedly inspired by the current war, they were quite striking, and  I believe are soon to be published.  Johnson's degree comes from Johns Hopkins, and she also participated in the Iowa Writer's Workshop, where she enjoyed the great freedom it offered.  Currently teaching Renaissance literature at Brigham Young University, she is considered, along with Susan Howe, as representative of Mormon literature.
    Her other publications include translations of Virgil: The Georgics: A New Verse Translation (Penguin Classics, 2009).  She edited John Donne's Complete Sermons: The Electronic Archive (lib.byu.edu/dlib/donne).  With Michael C. Schoenfeldt and Richard Strier she edited Divisions on a Ground: Essays in Renaissance Literature in Honor of Donald M. Friedman (2008).
    She is scheduled to read on April 1, 2009 at the University of Missouri Center for the Literary Arts.

Links:
Johnson interviewed by Marcus Smith concerning A Metaphorical God on Thinking Aloud, a series produced by Brigham Young University (September 29, 2008).  There she noted that the book was structured around the season of lent, and that John Donne is "her boyfriend."
Johnson's poem "Jubilee" from A Metaphorical God was featured on Verse Daily, as were some of her previous poems (2008).
Excerpts of her translations of Virgil were featured in Arch 1 (Washington University, Winter 2008), including "How to Steal Honey from Bees," and with a short bio statement.
Kent Larsen, "Mormon Poetry for National Poetry Month," on Motley Vision: Mormon Arts and Culture (April 4, 2008).
Johnson interviewed about Leviathan with a Hook on Thinking Aloud (January 25, 2007).
She gave a reading at Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois (April 24, 2006).
"Featured Artist: Kimberly Johnson," Utah Arts Council (Spring 2005).

And here is her faculty biography page from Brigham Young University.