Award-Winning Young Adult and Mid-Grade Novelist & Poet
Self-confessed ‘wise guy of the prose poem’ and also its unofficial laureate, Peter Johnson is one of America’s foremost practitioners and critics of prose poetry. The publication of his While the Undertaker Sleeps: Collected and New Prose Poems provides an important opportunity to reflect on the reputation of a master of the form, who, according to poet Read More ...
“The high-compression stories in Peter Johnson’s hyper-readable Shot open in 4th gear and accelerate from there. Take “Pretty Girl” which begins: “So you ask, ‘How could anyone so drop-dead gorgeous be afraid of mirrors?’” The considerable underlying art in these stories is matched by their fresh energy and flat out fun. What this book has common with Johnson’s poetry is Read More ...
Dreaming Awake: New and Contemporary Prose Poetry from the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom demonstrates that the contemporary prose poem continues to flourish in the sometimes- precarious borderlands between lineated poetry and conventional prose. In this volume, editors Peter Johnson and Cassandra Atherton have assembled four prose poems each—from fifty-one world-class poets, revealing the Read More ...
It’s two days before Christmas and a quiet Rhode Island town is about to be visited by a number of unexpected guests, among them a pair of very different Krampuses, not to mention a few Beasties. Are they there to protect Christoph, or to exact revenge with the aid of a heartless and monstrous Wolf? Read More ...
Peter Johnson has long been acclaimed by such poets as Russell Edson and Charles Simic as one of the masters of the prose poem. In his new book, Old Man Howling at the Moon, he continues his exploration of the genre, exhibiting his usual comic touch. Johnson calls these new poems “complaints” and traces his Read More ...
Truths, Falsehoods, and a Wee Bit of Honesty is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in the prose poem and is worth buying for Russell Edson’s correspondence alone. Peter Johnson’s essays and interviews are filled with imaginative insights on poetic form, the nature of humor and the grotesque in contemporary poetry, the problem of genre, Read More ...
A solid collection of prose poems written by some of the best American practitioners of the genre. It also provides a good way of looking at the prose poem as a legitimate genre by focusing on what the poets themselves have to say about their own work. “A Cast-Iron Aeroplane is at once a fun Read More ...
This heartfelt story about school, friendship, and family is perfect for readers who can’t get enough of such middle grade favorites as Jerry Spinelli and Gary D. Schmidt. From acclaimed author Peter Johnson, The Life and Times of Benny Alvarez is a novel that will make you laugh, cry, and appreciate your family all the Read More ...
“Miracles & Mortifications is a poet’s atlas, and it happens to be exactly the right tour guide, for these poems are comic, sexual, and endlessly inventive. They are poems of appreciation and discovery; poems that prove there is such a thing as the American prose poem.” — Russell Edson Order Now From Amazon (Click Logo Read More ...
An unnamed sixteen-year-old is the narrator of this impressionistic and fragmented story of two brothers who learn that the disappearance of their father is only the tip of his mystery and only a sliver of what really happened. HONORS and AWARDS: Best New Books for the Classroom — Book Links Books for the Teen Age Read More ...
For fans of Jerry Spinelli’s Maniac Magee, Gary D. Schmidt’s The Wednesday Wars, and Jack Gantos’s Joey Pigza Books comes a hilarious and poignant slice-of-life novel from critically acclaimed author and poet Peter Johnson. When an author comes to speak to his class in a rundown area of Providence, Houdini decides to make money by Read More ...
“Johnson’s supremely quirky mind enables him to combine the strange and familiar, the most urgent bursts of lyricism with disarmingly unemotional statements. He leaves the reader with a new appreciation of a genre that, perhaps more than any other genre, makes the ordinary extraordinary.” — Michel Delville, The American Prose Poem “Peter Johnson writes with Read More ...
The fruits of my labor, the results of a lifetime spent writing across different forms and for different audiences.
The following young adult novels are intended for young adult or adult readers. Click on their covers for reviews and possible teacher guides.
The following mid-grade novels are intended for middle grade and above readers. Click on their covers for reviews and possible teacher guides.
The following books of prose poetry and short fiction are intended for young adult or adult readers.
Had an amazing visit on March 11 to Dartmouth Middle School where over 300 7th graders read The Amazing Adventures of John Smith Jr., aka Houdini. The students made murals and posters; they created a board game, and even performed a song–all inspired by Houdini. Below are some pictures of their projects.
Last Wednesday I visited St. Andrews in Barrington, RI, where all the middle schoolers read The Life and Times of Benny Alvarez. Over the years, I’ve learned that the success of my visits depends of course on the kids, but also on how well teachers prepare the students before I arrive. Gregg O’Brien and Mary Read More …
Last week reminded me of why I like what I do. All the 4th and 5th graders at Henry Barnard School read The Life and Times of Benny Alvarez, and all the 7th graders at Curtis Corner School read The Amazing Adventures of John Smith Jr., aka Houdini. The librarians and teachers really had the Read More …
In September I have a new story, “The Gunslinger,” forthcoming in Taking Aim: Power and Pain, Teens and Guns, edited by Michael Cart, with other stories from the likes of Joyce Carol Oats, Walter Dean Myers, Chris Crutcher, and Francesca Lia Block. These are very powerful stories about a problem that continues to haunt our Read More …
Thanks to all who nominated The Life and Times of Benny Alvarez for the 2016 RI Teen Book Award. Good luck to Benny. He’s a great kid.