Amanda Johnston earned a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Southern Maine. She is the author of two chapbooks, GUAP and Lock & Key, and the full-length collection Another Way to Say Enter (Argus House Press). Her poetry and interviews have appeared in numerous online and print publications, among them, Callaloo, Poetry, Kinfolks Quarterly, Puerto del Sol, Muzzle, Pluck!, No, Dear and the anthologies, Small Batch, Full, di-ver-city, The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South, and Women of Resistance: Poems for a New Feminism. The recipient of multiple Artist Enrichment grants from the Kentucky Foundation for Women and the Christina Sergeyevna Award from the Austin International Poetry Festival, she is a member of the Affrilachian Poets and a Cave Canem graduate fellow. Johnston is a Stonecoast MFA faculty member, a cofounder of Black Poets Speak Out, and founding executive director of Torch Literary Arts. She serves on the Cave Canem Foundation board of directors and currently lives in Texas. 

Website: www.amandajohnston.com

Twitter Username: @amejohnston

Publications

• Another Way to Say Enter , Argus House Press (November 3, 2017)

Awards

• Austin International Poetry Festival Christina Sergeyevna Award(2005)
• Split This Rock Freedom Plow Award for Poetry & Activism, Joint Finalist(2015)

Employment

• Founder / Executive Director at Torch Literary Arts (August 2006 - )
• Poetry Faculty at Stonecoast MFA, University of Southern Maine (January 2016 - )

Degrees

• Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from University of Southern Maine (December 2013)

Genres of Interest

Creative nonfiction, Playwriting, Screenwriting, Poetry