Jill McCabe Johnson
Jill's Web Site: http://jillmccabejohnson.com
Jill McCabe Johnson lives and writes in Washington State’s San Juan Islands, an archipelago in the Salish Sea. An avid hiker, Jill’s research interests center on the influence of walking on the various literatures of the world and the power of the written word to inspire change. Jill’s own writing, which doesn't shy away from difficult topics, leans toward hope, empowerment, and trust in the prevailing goodness of humanity.
Jill holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Pacific Lutheran University and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Nebraska—Lincoln. Honors include support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Artist Trust, and Hedgebrook, among others. Jill is editor-in-chief of Wandering Aengus Press and its imprint, Trail to Table Press.
Publications include the poetry collections Tangled in Vow & Beseech (MoonPath, 2024), finalist for the Sally Albiso Poetry Award, Revolutions We’d Hoped We’d Outgrown (Finishing Line, 2017), shortlisted for the Clara Johnson Award for Women’s Literature, and Diary of the One Swelling Sea (MoonPath, 2013), winner of the Nautilus Silver Award in Poetry, plus the poetry chapbook Pendulum (Seven Kitchens, 2016), finalist for the Rane Arroyo Poetry Award, and the nonfiction chapbook Borderlines (Sweet, 2015).
Watch a recording of Jill reading from Tangled in Vow & Beseech along with Sarah Stockton
Tangled in Vow & Beseech: $17.99
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Poem from Tanngled in Vow & Beseech
Winter Dog Walk
Woodsmoke drifts down the chimney, a specter of weighted fog, and though its scent coats my fingers from futzing in the woodstove hours earlier, my mind knows the smell emanates from a fire my mother laid and father stoked in a cabin in Tahoma’s shadow. Flames danced on cedar and heat billowed to the loft where my siblings and I nestled under flannel quilts till the crackle of bacon roused us into winter light. Today the dog’s leash lengthens and retracts like memory. Smoke skims along roof shingles and my thoughts burrow deep in the frayed kip of a quilt.
Diary of the One Swelling Sea: $15.00
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Poem from Diary of the One Swelling Sea
Day Basalt
Vesicular, matrix, or frothy scoria,
its glassy facets glisten like Sky
as magma emerges with each starview spin.
Upwelling in heat, cooling in answer—
the volcanic-chain ritual
of simmer and subside.
