About the Poet
Jeffrey N. Johnson’s Virginia roots on his paternal side can be traced back to several Ancient Planters of Jamestown, as well as to Lord Baltimore and the Maryland colony across the Potomac. His maternal lines include Czech immigrants in the late 1800's who settled New Bohemia, just outside of Petersburg. Johnson was raised in the town of Clifton in Fairfax County, and graduated from Virginia Tech in 1986 with a Bachelor of Architecture. He was awarded a residency at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and a “Creative Fellow” grant from the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation. He has lived in Alexandria since 1988.
Johnson’s poetry has appeared in Birmingham Poetry Review, The Carolina Quarterly, Clackamas Literary Review, Dos Passos Review, Gargoyle, The Midwest Quarterly, The Northern Virginia Review, Oxford Magazine, Plainsongs, Red Rock Review, Roanoke Review, Santa Clara Review, South Carolina Review, Steel Toe Review, and War, Literature, and the Arts. Two of his poems have been anthologized in Texas Review Press’s SOUTHERN POETRY ANTHOLOGY: VIRGINIA. He has also directed and produced a poetry film, “One Old, One Young” that has appeared internationally in multiple film festivals.
Johnson is also a fiction writer. His novel THE HUNGER ARTIST was a finalist in the Library of Virginia’s People’s Choice Award in 2015, and his story collection OTHER FINE GIFTS won an Ippy Award in 2018 for Best Regional Fiction: Mid-Atlantic, which included the Andrew Lytle Fiction Prize winning short story published in The Sewanee Review. His stage play AFFAIR AT THE HOTEL OPAL had a full production at the Potomac Playmaker’s 4th Annual One-Act Play Festival in Hagerstown, MD. His stories have appeared in Aethlon: The Journal of Sport Literature, Connecticut Review, The Distillery, The Evansville Review, Lake Effect, Night Train Magazine, Potomac Review, REAL: Regarding Arts and Letters, South Dakota Review, Summerset Review, and Wisconsin Review.
Region
Northern
Virginia City or County Affiliation
Fairfax County
Years of Residence in Virginia
1962 -
Current City/State of Residence
Alexandria, VA
Gender
Male
Race/Ethnicity
White
Year of Birth
1962
Keywords/Tags
Survival, Anxiety, Coping
Website
Published Works or Performances
- Other Fine Gifts: Stories. Meddler Press, 2017. (Ippy Award - Best Regional Fiction: Mid-Atlantic)
- The Hunger Artist: A Novel. Meddler Press, 2014. (Library of Virginia People’s Choice Award Finalist)
- "Lost Among the Hedgerows." Sewanee Review, Fall, 2011. (Winner of the Andrew Lytle Fiction Prize)
Selected Individual Poems or Performances
- Mediate, Meditate, 2023.
- Contemplating Nonexistence, 2018.
- Last Ride, 2017.
- A Jazz Moment, 2017.
- One Old, One Young, 2020. (PDF Included)
Jeffrey N. Johnson