Book Launch: Patrick Johnson's GATEKEEPER, with Khaled Mattawa

“Gatekeeper stands out for its focus, suspense, and intense interrogation of its subject matter.” —Khaled Mattawa

Join us at Parallel Café as we celebrate Patrick Johnson, winner of the 2019 Ballard Spahr Poetry Prize, and his debut collection of poems, Gatekeeper. The evening will feature a reading from Gatekeeper, conversation between Patrick and Ballard Spahr Poetry Prize judge and poet, Khaled Mattawa, and a reception with food and drink!

Free and open to the public. Please RSVP to let us know you’re coming. Invite your friends and share on Facebook!

Program
7:00 p.m. – Doors open
7:30 p.m. – Reading + Conversation
8:30 p.m. – Reception (book signing + food/refreshments)

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“Patrick Johnson probes the changing nature of selfhood in our time, how we’ve become utterly unknowable and vulnerably exposed, and how the body and its desires and yearnings are reeled toward something that only be described as oneself. Gatekeeper stands out for its focus, suspense, and intense interrogation of its subject matter. A deeply engaging and intelligent book, and a thoroughly enjoyable one.” —Khaled Mattawa

“Fragmented and fractured, Johnson pushes this book to its structural limits—and the result is a successfully jarring and disturbing collection. This is a book of the internet, and of our internal selves: of pursuit, lust, and a closing into the spirit.” —The Millions

“Impressive and formally versatile … ‘The individual becomes invisible,’ [Johnson] observes, positioning the reader as collaborator and co-conspirator in this thought-provoking collection.” —Publishers Weekly

“Spooky and spare, Gatekeeper is a striking debut collection and a suspenseful odyssey for these troubled times.” —Chicago Review of Books

“These fascinating poems rest on the assumption that each of us has two selves: one that occupies space in the ‘real’ world and another that exists only in a movie that plays continuously at the back of our minds. With our hands on a computer keyboard, we have a third, cyborg, self. The poetic enactment of the splitting of these multiple selves is mesmerizing.” —Mary Jo Bang

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Patrick Johnson earned his MFA in poetry at Washington University in St. Louis and completed his undergraduate at University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is currently studying to become a physician assistant, and lives in Madison.

Khaled Mattawa currently teaches in the graduate creative writing program at the University of Michigan. He is the author of five books of poetry, and a critical study of the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. Khaled has coedited two anthologies of Arab American literature and translated several volumes of contemporary Arabic poetry. His awards include the Academy of American Poets Fellowship prize, the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation, and a MacArthur Fellowship.