Chris Johnson (he/they) was born and raised on the traditional territory of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples. This territory is colonially known as the district of Scarborough in Toronto, ON. Chris moved to Ottawa in 2009 to study at Carleton University where he received a BA and MA in English Literature. From 2012 to 2014 he was a co-editor of Carleton’s student-run literary magazine and press, In/Words, where he oversaw the publication of six issues and fifteen chapbooks. Before graduating in 2014 he was hired as the Coordinating Editor for Arc Poetry Magazine, where he is now the Managing Editor. From 2020 to 2025 Chris was the Awards Committee Chair on the board of directors for the Ottawa Arts Council (now Arts Ottawa), and from 2021 to 2024 he served on the selection committee at Bywords.ca. In Carleton University’s Winter 2023 term, Chris began teaching an experiential learning course designed for the purpose of establishing a new student-run online publication titled Sumac Literary Magazine. In December 2024, Chris joined the team at Nightwood Editions as their Editorial Assistant.
After self-publishing his work in the early 2010s, Chris’ poetry and writing can now be found in literary journals and anthologies across Canada and in the US. Chris’ chapbooks of original poetry include Listen, Partisan! (Frog Hollow Press, 2016), Gravenhurst (above/ground press, 2019), some of the raccoon poems (above/ground press, 2022), and 320 lines of poetry (Anstruther Press, 2023). He has collaborated with other artists in Quatuor Gualuor (a sound poetry ensemble lead by jwcurry) and as a member of the creative collective VII (alongside Manahil Bandukwala, Ellen Chang-Richardson, Conyer Clayton, nina jane drystek, Margo LaPierre and Helen Robertson). Since VII’s formation in 2020, they have released two chapbooks of collaborative poetry: Towers (Collusion Books, 2021) and Holy Disorder of Being (Gap Riot Press, 2022). On Chris’ 34th birthday he was surprised by the launch of A Crown of Omnivorous Teeth (above/ground press, 2024), a chapbook of “poems in honour of Chris Johnson and raccoons in general” that was edited by Dessa Bayrock. From mid-October to mid-November 2025 Chris was the writer-in-residence the Al & Eurithe Purdy A-frame.
Chris currently lives in Ottawa, the unceded, unsurrendered Territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation whose presence here reaches back to time immemorial.
Literary CV
Contact:
chrisjohnson16@gmail.com
@ceeeejohnson.bsky.social
Chris Johnson 