Johnson, Peter 1951–

PERSONAL:

Born 1951, in Buffalo, NY; married; wife's name Genevieve; children: Kurt and Lucas. Education: State University of New York—Buffalo, B.A., 1976; University of New Hampshire, M.A., 1978, Ph.D., 1983.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of English, Providence College, 549 River Ave., Providence, RI 02918-0001. E-mail—pjohnson@providence.edu.

CAREER:

Providence College, Providence, RI, professor of English. Founder and editor of Prose Poem: An International Journal, 1992-2001.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Winner of fiction chapbook contest, Raincrow Press, 1997, for I'm a Man; fellow, National Endowment for the Arts, 1999; James Laughlin Award, Academy of American Poets, 2001, for Miracles and Mortifications; grant from Rhode Island Council on the Arts, 2002.

WRITINGS:

Pretty Happy! (prose poetry), White Pine Press (Buffalo, NY), 1997.

Love Poems for the Millennium (poetry chapbook), Quale Press (Haydenville, MA), 1998.

I'm a Man (stories), Raincrow Press (Rossford, OH), 1998, White Pine Press (Buffalo, (NY), 2003.

(Editor) Best of the Prose Poem: An International Journal, White Pine Press (Buffalo, NY), 2000.

Miracles and Mortifications: Prose Poems, White Pine Press (Buffalo, (NY), 2001.

Eduardo & ‘I’: Prose Poems, White Pine Press (Buffalo, NY), 2006.

What Happened (young adult novel), Front Street (Asheville, NC), 2007.

Contributor of short stories, articles, and reviews to periodicals, including Mississippi Review, Five Fingers Review, Crossroads, Chiron Review, Review: Magazineof Southern New England, Providence Journal, Wisconsin English Journal, Beloit Fiction Journal, Treasure House, and Controlled Burn. Contributing editor, American Poetry Review, Web del Sol, and Slope.

SIDELIGHTS:

Peter Johnson is the author of poems, stories, and, with What Happened, a young adult novel. The unnamed narrator of the novel is a sixteen-year-old boy whose mother has died and whose father has abandoned him, and his brother Kyle, to live with an aunt. Kyle is dating Emily, who is the sister of the bully Duane; the plot of the story revolves around a joyride the brothers take with Duane and Duane's buddy, both of whom are drunk and stoned on the way to a party. The ride leads to a tragedy that Duane's father attempts to cover up with his influence and money, and the brothers learn that Duane's father once loved their now-deceased mother and hated their now-absent father.

A Kirkus Reviews contributor noted that the story "slides between flashback and narrative just as the narrator hangs on for the ride of his life from the back seat." School Library Journal reviewer Vicki Reutter noted that Duane and his father are satisfactorily dealt with at the story's conclusion, but wrote that "the more satisfying ending is the poetical narrator coming to terms with his past and looking to a brighter future."

Johnson told CA that what first got him interested in writing was "reading classical mythology and listening to the old Irish guys in my family tell stories."

"I've been influenced in poetry by Catullus, Ovid, and Charles Simic. In fiction by James Joyce, Sherwood Anderson, and Joyce Carol Oates."

When asked the most surprising thing he has learned as a writer, Johnson said: "That I can actually do it, and that when I'm finished with a project it always seems as if someone else has written it."

When asked which of his books is his favorite, he answered: "Your books are your children. You love them in different ways, both for their successes and failures.

"I just want someone to read them."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Antioch Review, summer, 1998, John Taylor, review of Pretty Happy!, p. 381.

Booklist, May 1, 2007, review of What Happened, p. 133.

Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 2007, review of What Happened, p. 224.

School Library Journal, June, 2007, Vicki Reutter, review of What Happened, p. 148.

Voice of Youth Advocates, June, 2007, Francisca Goldsmith, review of What Happened.