Author Profile
Johnny Payne
Johnny Payne is the arts editor at Merion West. Johnny is a poet, novelist, playwright, and essayist. He has worked extensively in Latin American Studies, especially literature under dictatorship and Quechua oral tradition. He directs the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at Mount Saint Mary’s University, Los Angeles. He earned his doctorate from Stanford University.
Biographical details as published on May 28, 2025.
Interviews
No piecesArticles
32 pieces-
Still in the Holler
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Fieldnotes: Annie Christain’s “The Vanguards of Holography” and Caroline Harper New’s “A History of Half-Birds”
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Strawberry Fields Forever: Amie Whittemore’s “Nest of Matches”
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Cosmic Comic Kvetching in Anthony Immergluck’s “The Worried Well”
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Midwestern Mice in Silk Kimonos: Yuki Tanaka’s “Chronicle of Drifting”
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Language for Throat and Tongue: Elise Paschen’s “Blood Wolf Moon”
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The Speech of Herbs: Melissa Kwasny’s “The Cloud Path”
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The Buster’s Hand: Sunni Brown Wilkinson’s “Rodeo”
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God’s in the Weeds: Daneen Bergland’s “The Goodbye Kit”
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Sand, Ash, or Mud: Valerie Witte’s “A Rupture in the Interiors”
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Little Engines of Self: Joy Manesiotis’ “Revoke”
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Notes on Kitsch: Janice Harrington’s “Yard Show”
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How to Read Poetry
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The Dead Are Difficult: Jenny George’s “After Image”
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Wrackable as Arguments: Anne-Marie Turza’s “Fugue with Bedbug”
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“No One Is Ever Really Just One Thing”: Laurel Nakanishi’s “Ashore”
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Scribe in Disguise: Amy Beeder’s “And So Wax Was Made and Also Honey”
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Fierce Lyric in Karla Kelsey’s “Blood Feather”
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Ekphrasis and Eugene Datta’s “Water and Wave”
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How To Write Lyric Poetry
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A Different Kind of Knowledge: Matthew Zapruder’s “I Love Hearing Your Dreams”
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Poems Without a Passport: Solmaz Sharif’s “Customs”
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Syllabic Fits of Speech: Cedar Sigos’ “All This Time”
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Lynn Xu’s Cantilevered Vase of Moonlight
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Kink or Worship or Both: Megan Fernandes’ “I Do Everything I’m Told”
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“The Rhapsodic Fallacy” and Maurice Manning’s “Snakedoctor”
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For Whom the Nobel Tolls: Tomas Tranströmer’s “The Blue House”
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The Creases Between Utterances: Jenny Xie’s “The Rupture Tense”
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Edgar Kunz’s “Tap Out” and “Fixer”
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On Arthur Sze’s “The Silk Dragon II”
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Bianca Stone, What Is Otherwise Infinite
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Lisa Olstein’s Dream Apartment