Daniel Johnson is the author of Shadow Act: an Elegy for Journalist James Foley, which is forthcoming from McSweeney's in August 2023. Shadow Act explores Johnson's nearly 20-year friendship with James Foley, who was killed by ISIS in Syria in 2014. Johnson is also the author of How to Catch a Falling Knife, published by Alice James Books. In 2016, the City of Boston commissioned Johnson to compose poetry for the Boston Marathon bombings on Boylston Street. His poetry has also been featured on National Public Radio, PBS News Hour, the Washington Post and in a variety of journals and anthologies, including Best American Poetry, Tin House, and the Iowa Review. For nearly a decade, Johnson served as the founding executive director of 826 Boston, a youth writing center in Roxbury's Egleston Square. Johnson currently serves as the executive director of Mass Poetry.