Marilyn Johnston
Marilyn Johnston is a writer and filmmaker and recipient of writing fellowships from Oregon Literary Arts and the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund for Women. Her poetry won a Robert Penn Warren Award and the Donna J. Stone National Literary Award for Poetry, and her work has appeared in such literary journals as CALYX, NATURAL BRIDGE, POETRY INTERNATIONAL, and the WAR, LITERATURE, AND THE ARTS Journal. A chapbook of poems, RED DUST RISING, about her family’s healing from war, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and a full collection, BEFORE IGNITING, was just published in February 2020. Her short documentary, “My Mother was a Coast Guard SPAR,” was screened at film festivals in Oregon, California, Toronto, and Washington, D.C. She founded the Mid-Valley Veterans’ Writers and was a facilitator for the Oregon Humanities Council’s “On Coming Home” Project, created to help veterans returning from war zones deal with their trauma through literature and writing. Marilyn is currently a writing instructor in the Artists-in-the-Schools Program, primarily working with at-risk and incarcerated youth.
