Whistles in the Wind Poems by: George A. Johnson Illustrations by: Phoebe Olson
Biography - George A. Johnson
George was born in White Earth, North Dakota in 1928, and grew up in Oconto, Wisconsin. He lived in Milwaukee for twenty years before settling in Green Bay with his wife Joan and six children in 1973. Educated at Marquette University and Michigan State University in Business Administration, he retired from a successful career in mass marketing distribution in the food industry. While at MSU, George edited the newsletter, The Innovator, and later edited the Catholic newsletter, The Vine.
George has won many poetry awards through The Wisconsin Regional Writers Association and the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets. He has coordinated and participated in numerous poetry readings in Door and Brown Counties in Wisconsin, as well as at the Green Bay Botanical Gardens. Whistles in the Wind is his first published chapbook of poetry.
Literary AchievementsJohnson is a long-time member of both the Wisconsin Regional Writers Association and the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets (WFOP). Johnson is committed to the advancement of poetry within his community and throughout the state of Wisconsin. When the WFOP decided to offer poetry competitions to its members, he helped establish the submission criteria and award compensations for both “The Muse Poetry” and “The Triad” competitions. The contests are still well-supported today and offer the established poet, as well as the aspiring poet, a place to present their work in a competitive setting.
One of his more recent poems, “You Robert Lowell”, was included in The New England Writer’s Anthology, a tribute to America’s first poet laureate, Robert Penn Warren. Johnson also contributed to Wisconsin’s own search for its first poet laureate. On behalf of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, Johnson’s nomination of Ellen Kort from Appleton Wisconsin, directly contributed to Kort being seated as Wisconsin’s first poet laureate, by then Governor, Tommy Thompson.
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