Fenton Johnson

Fenton Johnson is the author of two novels, Crossing the River and Scissors, Paper, Rock, as well as Geography of the Heart: A Memoir and Keeping Faith: A Skeptic’s Journey among Christian and Buddhist Monks, a meditation on what it means for a skeptic to have and keep faith.  He has contributed stories and cover essays to Harper’s Magazine, the New York Times Magazine, and many literary quarterlies, and received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and more.  He is on the faculty of the creative writing program at the University of Arizona.

Keeping Faith: A Skeptic’s Journey Among Christian and Buddhist Monks

“An invaluable guide to a new kind of faith . . . drawn with precision and feeling.”
– James Carroll, author of Constantine’s Sword

“An important book . . . [Johnson has] a strong desire for truth and for purity of heart.”
– America

Geography of the Heart: A Memoir

“This is a timeless and BEAUTIFULLY written book. It is what memoir should seek to be. More than story.  Transcendent.”
– Alice Sebold, author of The Lovely Bones

“Heartbreaking . . . profoundly sad, and yet somehow hopeful . . . Geography of the Heart takes the shape and sudden trajectory of a novel.”
– Newsday