Matthew Johnson is the author of Shadow Folks and Soul Songs (Kelsay Books) and Far from New York State (New York Quarterly Press). His poetry has appeared in Apple Valley Review, The Amistad, Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, London Magazine, San Pedro River Review, and elsewhere. A recipient of the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominations, and a Writing Residency from Sundress Publications, he is the managing editor of The Portrait of New England and the poetry editor of The Twin Bill.
PRAISE:
Too Short to Box with God affirms that boxing is more than sport. Matthew Johnson’s poignant collection shows the grace and grit of pugilists never at rest, men whose punches echo history, injustice, racism, and even redemption. Boxing legends move through these poems. But the poet “watches it all,” sometimes from the safety of a ringside seat, sometimes closer to the damage on canvas, making meaning of fighters and fights, hitting notes that reverberate beneath and beyond the pain.
–Adam Berlin, Author of the Standing Eight
A remarkable, talented young poet committed to sports literature, Matthew Johnson fires fast verse combinations, in Too Short to Box with God, that Muhammad Ali would have loved. Johnson is a scholar of boxing, glories, and tragedies… the blindness of greats. There is the abject sadness of KO’d Sonny Liston with Ali over him, screaming, Get up, sucker. And Johnson throws poetic jabs ‘n hooks in celebration of the immortal Jack Johnson… Galveston goliath. With Too Short to Box with God, Matthew Johnson presents himself as a champ of boxing poetry.
–Red Shuttleworth, author of Eclipse of the Sun: Boxing Poems
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