“There is a striking honesty running through the poems collected in Purple Ink – A Childhood in Tanka by Carole Johnston. These tanka are often bittersweet, laced with both innocence and guilt, which is what make this book powerful and unique. Carole weaves her magic through the use of vivid, often surprising images to produce her signature tanka that tiptoe so delicately between inner and outer worlds. And, moving in and out of shades of light and dark, as well as the real and surreal — Carole proves herself not just as a brilliant tanka poet, but as a storyteller. She has a knack for producing vivid and memorable images in only five lines, by scratching beneath the surface to get under the skin of a poem, and in turn the reader. This is Carole Johnstonat her best, once again, packing that poetic punch that lingers far beyond the last page.”

–Caroline Skanne – editor of ‘Hedgerow: A Journal of Small Poems’ and Wildflower Poetry Press.