Kimberly Johnson (born 1971) is an American

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...

and Renaissance scholar.

Life

Johnson was raised in

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

. She earned her MA in 1995 from the

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...

Writing Seminars, her MFA in 1997

Iowa Writers' Workshop The Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa, is a celebrated graduate-level creative writing program in the United States. The writer Lan Samantha Chang is its director. Graduates earn a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in Creative W ...

, and a PhD in 2003 from

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. She teaches courses in creative writing and Renaissance literature at

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-d ...

(BYU). Johnson's academic interests include lyric poetry, John Milton, and John Donne. Her work has appeared in ''The New Yorker'', ''Slate'', ''The Iowa Review'', ''32 Poems'', ''The Yale Review'', and ''The Best American Poetry 2020'', and her translations from Latin and Greek have been published in literary and academic journals. She has also published a number of scholarly articles on seventeenth-century literature. She has edited a collection of essays on Renaissance literature, and an online archive of John Donne's complete sermons. She was married to poet Jay Hopler until his death in June 2022.

Awards

In 2005, she was awarded a Creative Writing Fellowship from

the National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

to support the completion of her second collection, ''A Metaphorical God''. In 2011, she received a Guggenheim Fellowship. She has received two

AML Award The AML Awards are given annually by the Association for Mormon Letters (AML) to the best work "by, for, and about Mormons." They are juried awards, chosen by a panel of judges. Citations for many of the awards can be found on the AML website. T ...

s for her books ''Leviathan with a Hook'' in 2002 and ''Fatal'' in 2022. She was a finalist in 2014 for ''Uncommon Prayer'' and ''Made Flesh''.

Books

Poetry

*''Leviathan with a Hook'', Persea Books, 2002, *''A Metaphorical God,'' Persea Books, 2008, *''Uncommon Prayer,'' Persea Books, 2014, *''Fatal,'' Persea Books, 2022,

Criticism

*''Made Flesh: Sacrament and Poetics in Post-Reformation England'', University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014,

Translations

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: th ...

, ''

Georgics The ''Georgics'' ( ; ) is a poem by Latin poet Virgil, likely published in 29 BCE. As the name suggests (from the Greek word , ''geōrgika'', i.e. "agricultural (things)") the subject of the poem is agriculture; but far from being an example ...

'', Penguin Classics, 2009, *

Hesiod Hesiod (; grc-gre, Ἡσίοδος ''Hēsíodos'') was an ancient Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. He is generally regarded by western authors as 'the first written poet ...

, ''

Theogony The ''Theogony'' (, , , i.e. "the genealogy or birth of the gods") is a poem by Hesiod (8th–7th century BC) describing the origins and genealogies of the Greek gods, composed . It is written in the Epic dialect of Ancient Greek and contain ...

and

Works and Days ''Works and Days'' ( grc, Ἔργα καὶ Ἡμέραι, Érga kaì Hēmérai)The ''Works and Days'' is sometimes called by the Latin translation of the title, ''Opera et Dies''. Common abbreviations are ''WD'' and ''Op''. for ''Opera''. is a ...

'', Northwestern University Press, 2017.

As editor

*''Before the Door of God: An Anthology of Devotional Poetry'', Yale University Press, 2013, *''Divisions on a Ground: Essays on Renaissance Literature in Honor of Donald M. Friedman'', George Herbert Journal Special Series and Monographs, 2008,

References

External links

Author's website

"A Metaphorical God with Poet Kimberly Johnson"
''Thinking Aloud'', Marcus Smith, 9/29/2008
"Poetry: Kimberly Johnson"
''Hammer Readings'', 5/14/09
"Kimberly Johnson"
''Verse Daily''
"A Metaphorical God"
Persea Books
"Leviathan with a Hook"
Persea Books

Penguin Classics Catalogue ;Readings *http://jacket2.org/commentary/remaking-it-new {{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Kimberly 1971 births Johns Hopkins University alumni Brigham Young University faculty American women poets University of Iowa alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni Living people Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni Writers from Salt Lake City Place of birth missing (living people) Translators of Virgil