My New Poetry Book Is Out!

You can buy my new book through my publisher, or if you'd like a signed copy, leave a comment here and I'll make that happen. Here's what a few people have to say about the book.

Each poem in Questionable Baggage is an alert—the language bristles, constantly shifting from noun to noun, so that the reader’s eyes do not rest; peculiarities of the present world are examined closely, via a gaze that binds present absurdities to the deep past, so that the reader’s mind does not rest. Marci Rae Johnson has made a book as rich and alive with language as any contemporary book of poetry could hope to be.

—Shane McCrae

Compelled by the absurd—that’s one way to describe Marci Rae Johnson’s poetry. In Questionable Baggage we read about Jacuzzis washed into the sea, a minister walking on water before becoming lunch for crocodiles, products like Nutella and Skittles and Cheese Whiz, Tupperware and Pyrex, Viewmaster slides and My Little Pony. But there’s meaning in absurdity, which Johnson reveals in all of its ridiculous yet lyrical glory.

—Lynn Domina

Questionable Baggage is what happens when a poet has a wicked sense of humor and a wide-open heart. I’ve learned not to read Marci Rae Johnson’s poems in public unless I want to make a scene: when this book wasn’t making me laugh out loud, I was crying or sitting with my jaw dropped and goosebumps all over my arms. No matter what you’re expecting, these poems will surprise you. 

—Katie Manning, author of Hereverent and Tasty Other and editor-in-chief of Whale Road Review