Devin Johnston

Devin Johnston (born 14 March 1970) is an American poet, professor, publisher, and literary critic. He has written several books of poetry including Sources, which was shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry. He serves as the Eugene A. Hotfelder Professor in the Humanities at Saint Louis University, Missouri.

Life and Career Although Johnston was born in Canton, New York, he grew up in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He began to write poetry at a young age but published only a few poems even into his twenties.

After receiving a BA from Oberlin College in 1992, Johnston studied to earn a PhD at The University of Chicago. Even before graduating from The University of Chicago in 1999, Johnston began to plan the founding of Flood Editions with his friend Michael O'Leary.

Flood Editions released its first two books in 2001. Currently, the press publishes 4 volumes of poetry, short prose, and art each year.

In the same year, Johnston released his own first book of poetry, Telepathy, through the Australian independent publisher Paper Bark Press.

Also soon after graduating from The University of Chicago, Johnston entered his first academic position at St. Louis University.

——— (2004). Aversions (poetry). Richmond, California: Omnidawn Press. . ——— (2008). Sources (poetry). New York City: Turtle Point Press. .

——— (2015). Far-Fetched: Poems (poetry). New York City: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ——— (2019). Mosses and Lichens: Poems (poetry). New York City: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. . ——— (2023). Dragons: Poems (poetry). New York City: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. .

Literary Criticism Source: ——— (2002). Precipitations: Contemporary American Poetry as Occult Practice (literary criticism). Middletown: Wesleyan University Press. . ——— (2009). Creaturely and Other Essays (literary criticism). New York City: Turtle Point Press. .

Awards and Recognition In 2012, Johnston was awarded the Friends of Literature prize by the Poetry Foundation for his poems New Song and A Close Shave.

The New York Times's "Best Poetry Books of 2015" included Johnston's fifth collection of poetry, Far-Fetched, and its "Best Poetry Books of 2019" included his seventh collection, Mosses and Lichens.