Kent Johnson (1955 – October 25, 2022) was an American poet, translator, critic, and anthologist. His work, much of it
meta-fictional
Metafiction is a form of fiction which emphasises its own narrative structure in a way that continually reminds the audience that they are reading or viewing a fictional work. Metafiction is self-conscious about language, literary form, and story ...
and/or
satirical in approach, has provoked a notable measure of controversy and debate within
English-language poetry circles.
Life and career
From the late 1990s, Johnson was widely been thought to be the author of the
Araki Yasusada writings, which a reviewer for the
''Nation'' magazine, in 1998, called “the most controversial work of poetry since
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Gener ...
’s ''
Howl
Howl most often refers to:
*Howling, an animal vocalization in many canine species
*Howl (poem), a 1956 poem by Allen Ginsberg
Howl may also refer to:
Film
* ''The Howl'', a 1970 Italian film
* ''Howl'' (2010 film), a 2010 American arthouse b ...
''.” Johnson, however, never officially claimed authorship of the material, presenting himself only as “executor” of an archive supposedly composed by a writer, or writers, whose choice was to maintain a principled anonymity in relation to the work. In recent years, the Yasusada discussion has moved from the realm of literary scandal and gossip into considerations of more scholarly kind, and a substantial number of academic articles have engaged the topic, pro and con. In 2011, a book of critical studies,
Scubadivers'' and ''Chrysanthemums: Essays on the Poetry of Araki Yasusada', was published in England, to which Johnson was one of eighteen contributors.
''Lyric Poetry after Auschwitz: Eleven Submissions to the War'' (its contents later included into a larger collection, ''Homage to the Last Avant-Garde'', 2009) was published in 2005. As the first book of poetry in the United States to respond to the wars in
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
and
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...
, it was the subject of numerous reviews and blog commentaries, a good deal of the latter hostile. The title poem of the collection, “Lyric Poetry after Auschwitz, or: Get the Hood Back On,” angrily confronts the torture committed at
Abu Ghraib and elsewhere, though it does so in a manner quite non-conventional for “anti-war” poetry: The poem proceeds in a series of stanzas set in the voices of American military prison guards, who calmly chat with Iraqi prisoners and sociably describe their quite normal backgrounds at home, before graphically informing the prisoners of the tortures to which they will be subjected. The poem, however, concludes unexpectedly when the voice of a generic U. S. poet joins the chorus of torturers, and in good-natured tone tells his captive to stop pleading and just accept the horror of his fate, because there is, after all, nothing that poetry can do to help him.
Latterly, Johnson became the focus of controversy, including threatened legal action, when he published a book that proposed, by means of an elaborate, forensically detailed hypothesis (supplemented in the book by a quasi-detective novella), that the poet
Kenneth Koch
Kenneth Koch ( ; 27 February 1925 – 6 July 2002) was an American poet, playwright, and professor, active from the 1950s until his death at age 77. He was a prominent poet of the New York School of poetry. This was a loose group of poets includ ...
may have been the hidden author of “A True Account of Talking to the Sun at Fire Island,” one of
Frank O’Hara’s canonical poems, composing it shortly after O’Hara’s death, and then placing it under his late friend’s name in a sui generis act of comradeship and mourning. First published in a limited edition in 2011, an expanded, second edition of this book, titled
A Question Mark above the Sun: Documents on the Mystery Surrounding a Famous Poem "by" Frank O’Hara', was published in 2012 and named a “Book of the Year” by the ''Times Literary Supplement''.
Johnson lived most of his childhood and adolescence in
Montevideo,
Uruguay
Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...
, returning to work there in the mid-1970s. In the early 1980s, on two extended visits, he worked with the
Sandinista Revolution
The Nicaraguan Revolution ( es, Revolución Nicaragüense or Revolución Popular Sandinista, link=no) encompassed the rising opposition to the Somoza dictatorship in the 1960s and 1970s, the campaign led by the Sandinista National Liberation F ...
as a literacy and Adult Education teaching volunteer in rural zones of Nicaragua. Since 1991, he has taught English and Spanish at Highland Community College in Freeport,
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...
. In 2004, he was named State Teacher of the Year by the
Illinois Community College Board
The Illinois Community College System consists of 39 public community college districts, composed of 48 community colleges and one multi-college center (East St. Louis Community College Center) where 3 of the community colleges offer additional cl ...
of Trustees. He has received a
Pushcart Book of the Month Award, an Ohio Board of Regents Grant for research in the
U.S.S.R
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
., an
Illinois Arts Council
The Illinois Arts Council is a government agency of the state of Illinois formed to encourage development of the arts throughout Illinois. Founded in 1965 by the Illinois General Assembly, the Illinois Arts Council provides financial and technica ...
Poetry Prize, a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, a PEN Translation Grant, a Finalist nomination for the
PEN Award for Poetry in Translation The PEN Award for Poetry in Translation is given by PEN America (formerly PEN American Center) to honor a poetry translation published in the preceding year. The award should not be confused with the PEN Translation Prize. The award is one of many ...
, a travel grant from the
University of Chile
The University of Chile ( es, Universidad de Chile) is a public research university in Santiago, Chile. It was founded on November 19, 1842, and inaugurated on September 17, 1843. , and a Visiting Writer Grant from the U.S. Embassy in Uruguay.
Johnson died on October 25, 2022, at the age of 67. He was survived by his wife, Deb, and his two sons.
Selected works
Poetry and Chapbooks
*''Waves of Drifting Snow.'' Ox Head Press, 1986.
*''Dear Lacan: An Analysis in Correspondence.'' (with Jaques Debrot), CCCP Translation Series (UK), 2003.
*''The Miseries of Poetry: Traductions from the Greek.'' CCCP Translation Series (UK), 2003.
*''The Miseries of Poetry: Traductions from the Greek.'' Skanky Possum Press, 2004.
*''Epigramititis: 118 Living American Poets.''
BlazeVOX Books
BlazeVOX Books, often stylized as BlazeVOX ooks'', is an independent publisher founded by Geoffrey Gatza and based in Buffalo, New York. Since 2000, it has published more than 350 books of poetry and prose, most of which fall within the sphere ...
, 2005.
*''Lyric Poetry After Auschwitz: Eleven Submissions to the War.'' Effing Press, 2005.
*''I Once Met.'' Longhouse Books, 2007.
*''Homage to the Last Avant-Garde.'' Shearsman Books (UK), 2008.
*''5 Works from the Rejection Group.'' Habenicht Press, 2012.
*
ntitled Both Both Series, 2012.
*
Homage to Villon'. Beard of Bees, 2014.
''Works and Days of the fénéon collective'', Delete Press (e-book), 2014.*
Prize List'' Delete Press (e-book), 2015.
*''Homage to the Pseudo Avant-Garde'' (Dispatches Editions, 2017).
*''Because of Poetry, I Have a Really Big House'' (Shearsman Books, 2020).
Edited Collections and Translations
*''A Nation of Poets: Writings from the Poetry Workshops of Nicaragua'' (translation, introduction and interview with Father Ernesto Cardenal). West End Press, 1985.
*''Have You Seen a Red Curtain in my Weary Chamber: Poems, Stories and Essays by Tomás Borge Martínez'' (translation, with Russell Bartley and Sylvia Yoneda). Curbstone Press, 1989.
*''Beneath a Single Moon: Buddhism in Contemporary American Poetry'' (editor, with Craig Paulenich). Shambhala, 1990.
*''Third Wave: The New Russian Poetry'' (editor, with Stephen Ashby). University of Michigan Press, 1992.
*''Joyous Young Pines'' (editor, Araki Yasusada chapbook). Juniper Press, 1995.
*''Doubled Flowering: From the Notebooks of Araki Yasusada'' (editor). Roof Books, 1997.
*''Immanent Visitor: Selected Poems of Jaime Saenz'' (translation, with Forrest Gander). University of California Press, 2002
*''Also, with My Throat, I Shall Swallow Ten Thousand Swords: Letters of Araki Yasusada'' (editor). Combo Books, 2005.
* ''The Night,'' Jamie Saenz (translation with Forrest Gander). Princeton University Press, 2007.
*''Hotel Lautreamont: Contemporary Poetry from Uruguay'' (editor, with Roberto Echavarren). Shearsman Books (UK), 2012.
*''The Herald of Madrid: César Vallejo’s Lost Interview'' (annotated translation). Ugly Duckling Presse, 2014.
*''Resist Much, Obey Little: Poems to the Resistance'' (coordinated and introduced with Michael Boughn, Dispatches Editions, 2017).
*''El Misterio Nadal: A Lost and Rescued Book'' (Spuyten Duyvil, 2018).
*''Materia Prima: Selected Poems of Amanda Berenguer'' (co-edited with Kristin Dykstra, Ugly Duckling Presse, 2019).
Prose and Critical Fiction
*''Poetic Architecture: Eleven Quizzes.'' BlazeVox Books, 2007.
*"DAY." BlazeVOX/The Figures, 2010.
*''Doggerel for the Masses.'' BlazeVox Books, 2012.
*''A Question Mark above the Sun: Documents on the Mystery Surrounding a Famous Poem “by” Frank O’Hara.'' Starcherone Books, 2012 (previously published by Punch Press, 2011).
*''I Once Met: A Partial Memoir of the Poetry Field.'' Longhouse Books (revised and expanded edition), 2015.
Selected Interviews
*
*
*
*
Rain Taxi Interview, conducted by Michael Boughn
Selected Essays
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
"Why Communism Looks Out of Their Eyes"
External links
Author Bio"Some Darker Bouquets": Thirty two poets and critics respond to Johnson's comments on "Negative Reviews"*
Johnson talk at The Walker Center*
ttp://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1005&context=theune Michael Theune on various works by Johnsonbr>
Tony Tost on The Miseries of Poetry in Jacket MagazineDavid Hadbawnik on "Kent Johnson's Hybrid Critique" in ''Montevidayo''Jenny Hendrix on ''A Question Mark Above the Sun'' in ''The New Republic''Jeremy Noel-Tod, review of ''I Once Met'' in ''Chicago Review''
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Kent
1955 births
2022 deaths
American literary critics
American male non-fiction writers
American male poets