Johanna Skibsrud is an Assistant Professor with a special interest in modern poetry, philosophy and critical theory. She completed her PhD from the University of Montreal in 2012 with a dissertation on the poetry of Wallace Stevens, and was awarded a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council postdoctoral fellowshifrom 2012-2014. In 2018 she was awarded a Fulbright US Scholars fellowshito study the critical, creative and pedagogical applications of clowning, in part at the École International de Théatre Philippe Gaulier. Johanna is the author of three novels: Island Hamish Hamilton Canada 2019) Quartet for the End of Time Norton 2014) and the Scotiabank Giller Prize winning, The Sentimentalists Norton 2011) two collections of short fiction: Tiger, Tiger Hamish Hamilton Canada 2018) and This Will Be Difficult to Explain, and Other Stories Norton 2012) three collections of poetry: The Description of the World Wolsak and Wynn 2016) I Do Not Think that I Could Love a Human Being Gaspereau 2010) and Late Nights For Wild Cowboys Gaspereau 2008) and two non-fiction titles: The nothing that is" Essays on Art, Literature and Being Book*hug 2019) and The Poetic Imperative: A Speculative Aesthetics forthcoming from McGill-Queen's University Press in 2020) Her writings and essays have appeared, among other places, in Lithub, Granta magazine, Brick, Zoetrope, Mosaic, and The Luminary.