State Writer in Residence to read
Writer
and teacher William "Bill" Johnson, professor
emeritus of Lewis-Clark College, Lewiston, has
served as Idaho's "Writer in Residence" twice,
from 1998 to 2001 and again from 2010 to 2011.He will share his work with Bonners Ferry residents at 7 p.m. Friday, October 19, at the Boundary County Extension Office. Johnson presented a similar reading last year. Everyone is invited to attend.
Johnson has published two collections of poetry, a chapbook, "At the Wilderness Boundary," and a full collection of his works, "Out of the Ruins," which won the Idaho Book Award in 2000.
More recently, he's published another chapbook of poems, "Dogwood," and a book of essays, "A River Without Banks."
"A recurrent anxiety prods me to write," he wrote. "It's a feeling seeking form, half-given form, by whatever nags or prods me; glint of bottle glass by the road, a woman's downcast eyes, or a dead on a path. Intersections as yet inarticulate, perhaps unsayable, trigger a felt change, and if I'm lucky my anxiety -- whether dread, bliss or something between -- lets words in, and the words move toward a pattern, jumping ahead in hopes the pattern will grow, lapsing back to find it again, and in the process, if I'm lucky, in moments rare as they are redemptive, becoming a poem."
In addition to his reading Friday, Professor Johnson will lead a workshop for “The Write Stuff’ a group of local writers who meet twice a month.
The Bill Johnson workshop and readings are hosted by the “Write Stuff” and sponsored by the Boundary County Library and the Idaho Commission for the Arts.
You can learn more by calling Kathy Garrison (208) 267-5677.