Jenny Johnson is an American queer poet.
Early life and education
Johnson was born and raised in
Winchester, Virginia and began writing poetry as a teenager.
She received a BA/MT in English Education from the
University of Virginia and an MFA in poetry from
Warren Wilson College.
She taught in public schools in San Francisco before beginning to teach at the college level, and spent ten summers working as staff at the UVA Young Writer’s Workshop.
She taught at the
University of Pittsburgh and currently teaches at
West Virginia University where she is an assistant professor of Creative Writing, and at
Pacific Lutheran University’s Rainier Writing Workshop.
She lives in Pittsburgh.
Poetry
Johnson’s poems have appeared in ''
The New York Times'', ''
The Paris Review'', and ''
New England Review''. Her poems have been selected for the collections ''
The Best American Poetry 2012
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
'' Bodies Built for Game (University of Nebraska Press, 2019), Women of Resistance: Poems for a New Feminism (OR Books, 2018) and ''Troubling the Line: Trans & Genderqueer Poetics'' (Nightboat Books 2015).
Her first book of poetry, ''In Full Velvet'' was published by Sarabande Books in 2017 and took her eight years to write.
It received a starred review from
Publishers Weekly.
Johnson says it "explores gender, desire and LGBTQ lineage."
She cites
Marilyn Hacker and
Larry Levis as influences and has said "
Adrienne Rich and
Audre Lorde are poets I read when I know I could be living and writing more courageously."
describes it as being "in direct conversation with an array of other lesbian poets and queer writers" including Hacker but also Jenny Factor and they note how it "revels in the queerness of the natural world."
Johnson was featured on the cover of
Poets & Writers magazine in February 2018 as one of their "Ten poets who will change the world."
Johnson had a great aunt who was known as an
old maid in the family living with another woman who was likely her partner.
Great Aunt Dorothy features prominently in Johnson's first poetry collection.
Her award-winning poem "Aria" is a sonnet about the narrator and friends burning a bra to celebrate a transgender friend’s
top surgery.
Honors and awards
*
Beloit Poetry Journal’s Chad Walsh Poetry Prize (2011)
*
Whiting Award
The Whiting Award is an American award presented annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and plays. The award is sponsored by the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation
Mrs. (American English) or Mrs (British English; standard E ...
(2015)
* Blue Mountain Center scholarship and residency (2015)
* Hodder Fellowship at
Princeton University (2016–17)
*
Bread Loaf Writers' Conference poetry fellowship (2018)
* Creative Writing Fellowship from the
National Endowment for the Arts (2019)
References
External links
Personal website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Jenny
Living people
American women academics
American women poets
21st-century American poets
American LGBTQ poets
LGBTQ people from Virginia
Pacific Lutheran University faculty
American LGBTQ academics
Year of birth missing (living people)
People from Winchester, Virginia
21st-century American LGBTQ people