Join Z-Arts for a poetry reading by Kimberly Johnson at the Canyon Community Center at 7:00 pm. She is a poet, translator, and literary critic. Her collections of poetry include “Leviathan with a Hook”, “A Metaphorical God”, and “Uncommon Prayer”, and she has published book-length translations of Virgil and Hesiod. Her poetry, translations, and scholarly essays have appeared widely in publications including “The New Yorker”, “Slate”, and “Modern Philology”. Recipient of grants and fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Utah Arts Council, and the Mellon Foundation, Johnson lives in Salt Lake City with her two sons.

Ms. Johnson is professor of poetry and Renaissance literature at BYU. Although she was a biology major in college, the gracious support of her early mentor Mark Strand encouraged her to pursue a career in poetry. In her work as a poet and a literary critic, as well as in the classroom as a teacher, she tries to advocate for the importance of paying attention to the tiniest, most specific details — both in perception and in the fine discriminations of language. She hopes to communicate these ideas to the Zion Canyon community.

Following her lecture the next day, March 1, Professor Johnson will be conducting a workshop, “Writing the Senses” as part of the Zion Canyon “Poetry in the Park” event, sponsored by the Zion National Park Forever project, the Utah State Poetry Society, Red Rock Writers, and Z-Arts. For more information on Poetry in the Park, see their main website.

This project is supported in part by Utah Arts and Museums, with funding from the State of Utah and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Thank you to the Town of Springdale and the Canyon Community Center for supporting this event

Funding was provided by the Community Foundation of Utah at the recommendation of Ms. Louise Excell and Mr. David Pettit.