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503 ratings | 2 reviews | avg rating:3.77

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Matthew Johnson

Goodreads Author

Born

in New Rochelle, NY, The United States

Website

https://www.matthewjohnsonpoetry.com/

Twitter

Matt_Johnson_D

Genre

Poetry, Sports, Journalism

Influences

Langston Hughes, Mark Twain, Jean Toomer, Frederick Douglass, Washingt ...more

Member Since

April 2018

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Matthew is a poet, editor, and author of the poetry collections, Shadow Folk and Soul Songs (Kelsay Books), Far From New York State (New York Quarterly Press), and the chapbook, Too Short to Box with God (Finishing Line Press).

Among selected journals, Matthew's poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in African American Review, I-70 Review, Maudlin House, The London Magazine, The Maryland Literary Review, New York Quarterly, The Northern New England Review, The Roanoke Review, South Florida Poetry Journal, and Up the Staircase Quarterly

Matthew, who has served as a Sundress Publications Writing Fellow, is the recipient of both Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominations. He is also the managing editor of the independent, literary magazine, ...more

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Combine Editions
Matthew Johnson’s books

Average rating: 4.67 · 12 ratings · 7 reviews · 4 distinct works

	Too Short to Box with God it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 2024 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Shadow Folk and Soul Songs really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 4 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Far from New York State it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2023	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Jackie Robinson's Real Gone: Baseball Poems of New York it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2026	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Matthew is Currently Reading

Matthew Johnson is currently reading

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

bookshelves: currently-reading

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Apr 13, 2018 09:13AM

Matthew’s Recent Updates

Matthew Johnson rated a book The Carrying by Ada Limon (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Nov 04, 2026 02:34AM · like
Matthew Johnson entered a giveaway Canticle: A Novel by Janet Rich Edwards (Goodreads Author) 5 copies available, ends on December 01, 2026 Enter to win »
Nov 03, 2026 06:30PM · like · see giveaway
Matthew Johnson is now following Stacia Pelletier Author of Accidents of Providence
Nov 03, 2026 03:34PM · like
Matthew Johnson liked Risa's review of This Book Made Me Think of You:
Nov 01, 2026 06:25PM · see review
Matthew Johnson liked Becky’s status update Becky Quigley is currently reading Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution
Nov 01, 2026 06:25PM
Matthew Johnson rated a book The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Oct 29, 2026 06:50PM · like
Matthew Johnson liked Haley The Caffeinated Reader's status update Haley The Caffeinated Reader is on page 79 of 352 of Scream With Me
Oct 27, 2026 04:43PM
Matthew Johnson is now following Michael Gaspeny Author of A Postcard from the Delta
Oct 19, 2026 11:58AM · like
Matthew Johnson rated a book Sports Illustrated Monday Morning Quarterback: A fully caffeinated guide to everything you need to know about the NFL by Peter King	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Oct 11, 2026 04:02AM · like
Matthew Johnson liked a quote “The only thing new in the world is the history you do not know.” Harry Truman
Oct 07, 2026 04:22AM · like · more quotes by Harry Truman

More of Matthew's books…

Matthew’s Quotes

“To be is to do - Socrates

To do is to be - Sartre

Do Be Do Be Do - Sinatra”
― Kurt Vonnegut

tags: humor

1793 likes

“It’s no disgrace to be black, but it’s often very inconvenient.”
― James Weldon Johnson, The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man

tags: african-americans, blacks, passing-for-white, race, race-and-racism-in-america, race-relations, racism

31 likes

“Called, I say, though I have not called you to me, strangers from distant lands. You have come and are here met, in this very nick of time, by chance as it may seem. Yet it is not so. Believe rather that it is so ordered that we, who sit here, and none others, must now find counsel for the peril of the world.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

4 likes

“Amor, ch'al cor gentile ratto s'apprende
prese costui de la bella persona
che mi fu tolta; e 'l modo ancor m'offende.

Amor, che a nullo amato amar perdona,
Mi prese del costui piacer sì forte,
Che, come vedi, ancor non m'abbandona..."

"Love, which quickly arrests the gentle heart,
Seized him with my beautiful form
That was taken from me, in a manner which still grieves me.

Love, which pardons no beloved from loving,
took me so strongly with delight in him
That, as you see, it still abandons me not...”
― Dante Alighieri, Inferno

tags: italian, italy, love, medieval-literature, poetry

470 likes

“I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or to speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; — but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD.”
― William Lloyd Garrison