King of Terrors

"The King of Terrors [is] an invitation for us to ponder how our relationships, past and present, give temporary form to our worlds." - Kevin Spenst, Subterrain

". . . rarely has a poet written with such insight and precision about the surgical process itself. . ." - David Starkey, '31 Outstanding Poetry Books from 2023,' The California Review of Books

". . . [T]his is precisely what makes Johnstone's work such a treat for us humble reviewers. We never need to look too hard to find some objet d'art in his work to fixate on." - Jade Wallace, CAROUSEL Magazine

"Despite the unexpected and sudden diagnosis, the poems themselves continue a trajectory of approach from his prior collection, offering a wistful and examining commentary on the violence that exists just below the surface of the skin, whether through larger culture, or quite literally." - Rob McLennan, Dusie

"Infinity Network is a spare, sculpted, and devastating collection that fearlessly explores the outermost range, reverb, and implications of identity politics and techtopia as pale substitutes for human vitality and interdependency. " - Virginia Konchan, On the Seawall on Infinity Network

"Dog Ear poses personal impressions and collective questions - what we leave behind, if anything, in the physical world - by cultivating images and semi-narratives that are deeply, and sometimes, ridiculously human. In doing so, Johnstone's poems confidently confront love, death, and spectacle." - Brick: A Literary Journal on Dog Ear

"Johnstone's poems realize that 'Scuse me while I kiss the sky' was permeated with 'Nothing to do, nowhere to go, / I wanna be sedated' from its very origin and, by now, has given way to it entirely." - A. F. Moritz, Hamilton Arts & Letters on The Chemical Life

"Jim Johnstone's The King of Terrors is a poetic telling of how illness and a close encounter with death can make us strange to ourselves and to the world. The book offers a chance to see our lives anew, even the things we regret. The poems dance between accepting death and hoping for a second chance to do it all again. As the poet says, "the future is as certain / as the body / it inhabits / and multiplies rapidly." - Courtney Bates-Hardy, The Ampersand Review

"In The King of Terrors, Johnstone questions the feasibility of truth and redefines it as creative practice. His authorial voice simultaneously narrates the supposed facts and is unable to do justice to who he is or how he feels. If he as the poet is doubled, made other, and torn apart, the symbolic rendering of sincerity in writing is already suspect at its source." - Klara du Plessis, The Fiddlehead