J. Chester Johnson is a poet, essayist, and translator. His writings have been published domestically and abroad and translated into several languages. Johnson, whose work has been praised by leading writers and critics over a few decades, has authored numerous volumes of poetry, including ST. PAUL'S CHAPEL & SELECTED SHORTER POEMS, second edition (St. Johann Press); the collection's signature poem remains the memento card for the thousands of weekly visitors to the chapel that survived the 9/11 terrorists' attacks at Ground Zero in New York City. As The New York Times noted, "'St. Paul's Chapel' has been used for the church's memento card for more than 10 years."

NOW AND THEN: SELECTED LONGER POEMS was just released (January 20, 2017) by St. Johann Press. The poet and scholar Lawrence Joseph has said of this book: "The scope of NOW AND THEN is epic. It provides its readers with the same amplitude of intelligence, passion and formal achievement as our great American epics -- Melville's MOBY DICK, Whitman's LEAVES OF GRASS, and Ginsberg's FALL OF AMERICA. It is a book of fierce spiritual and moral witness, energy and power."

Johnson and W. H. Auden served as the two poets on the drafting committee for the retranslation of the Psalms, which is the version contained in the current edition of THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER of the Episcopal Church; the retranslation has been adopted by Lutherans in Canada and the United States and by the Anglican Church of Canada; it was adopted as the preferred (now, permitted) Psalm version until the Church of England produced its own in 2000. Johnson's memoir and literary and historical commentary on the retranslation of the Psalms, AUDEN, THE PSALMS AND ME, will be published by Church Publishing, Inc., the publishing arm of the Episcopal Church, in the fall of 2017. Johnson has also written on the American Civil Rights Movement; at the request of the Episcopal Church, he authored the Litany of Offense and Apology in poetry and prose for the national Day of Repentance (October 4, 2008) when the Episcopal Church formally apologized, with the presiding bishop officiating, for its role in transatlantic slavery and related evils; the piece is one of several works constituting the J. Chester Johnson Collection in the Civil Rights Archives at Queens College (New York City). Johnson has read his work at Harvard University, the National Cathedral and on the BBC. To learn more, visit Johnson's poetry website: www.jchesterjohnson.com.

J. Chester Johnson, born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, spent his youth in Monticello, Arkansas, a small town located on the cusp of the Mississippi River Delta in southeast Arkansas. He has lived most of his adult life in New York City and is married to Freda Stern Johnson; they have two children. For over three decades, in addition to his writing, Johnson owned and ran a financial advisory firm that concentrated on debt management for states, large local governments and public authorities; he also served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U. S. Treasury Department during the Carter Administration. Johnson was educated at Harvard College and the University of Arkansas (Distinguished Alumnus Award, 2010).