Johnson, Stephanie 1961–

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Johnson, Stephanie 1961–

PERSONAL: Born 1961, in Auckland, New Zealand; married Tim Woodhouse; children: three. Education: University of Canterbury, B.A., 1982; University of Auckland, Diploma (drama).

ADDRESSES: Home—Auckland, New Zealand. Agent—c/o Author Mail, St. Martin's Press, 175 5th Ave., New York, NY 10010.

CAREER: Poet, playwright, and novelist. Worked variously as book and film reviewer, and as a creative writing teacher; cofounder and creative director of Auckland Writers' and Readers' Festival, 1999–2001, 2003.

AWARDS, HONORS: Bruce Mason Memorial Playwright's Award, 1985, for Accidental Phantasies.

WRITINGS:

The Bleeding Ballerina (poems), Hard Echo Press (Auckland, New Zealand), 1987.

The Glass Whittler: And Other Stories, Penguin Books (New York, NY), 1989.

Crimes of Neglect, New Women's Press (Auckland, New Zealand), 1992.

All the Tenderness Left in the World (stories), University of Otago Press (Dunedin, Australia), 1993.

The Heart's Wild Surf (novel), Vintage Books (London, England), 1996, published as The Sailmaker's Daughter, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2003.

(Editor, with Graham Beattie) Penguin Twenty-five New Fiction, Penguin Books (Auckland, New Zealand), 1998.

The Whistler (novel), Vintage Books (Auckland, New Zealand), 1998.

Belief (novel), Vintage (Auckland, New Zealand), 2000, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2002.

The Shag Incident (novel), Vintage Books (Auckland, New Zealand), 2002.

Moody Bitch: Poems of the Last Two Decades, Godwit (Auckland, New Zealand), 2003.

Music from a Distant Room (novel), Vintage Books (Auckland, New Zealand), 2004.

Drowned Sprat and Other Stories, Random House (New York, NY), 2005.

UNPUBLISHED PLAYS

Accidental Phantasies, 1985.

Castle in the Harbor, 1987.

Folie à deux, 1996.

Contributor of articles to a number of periodicals and scholarly journals, as well as the author of a number of film scripts.

SIDELIGHTS: New Zealand-born author Stephanie Johnson writes across a diverse group of genres. She got her start writing poetry and plays, and eventually added novels and screenplays to her accomplishments. During her twenties, Johnson spent a significant amount of time living in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and the exposure is reflected in her work, providing the setting for several of her novels. During her university years, Johnson studied both history and drama, an education that served to sharpen her critical opinion of the human condition while still allowing her to portray the innocence of youth and the quirks of her misfit characters with a sympathetic eye. Crimes of Neglect, Johnson's first novel, tells the story of Bea, a forty-two-year-old woman who has failed at nearly every aspect of her life, including her marriage, motherhood, and her career as a cellist. Johnson shows Bea as often drunk and slovenly, as well as selfish, yet manages to redeem her through her daughter, who loves Bea despite her faults. In the end, Johnson allows Bea a glimmer of hope and the opportunity to turn her life around.

In The Heart's Wild Surf, Johnson mines her own family history and focuses on colonial Fiji. Set in 1918 during an influenza epidemic, the novel follows the fortunes of the McNab family, who work as chandlers and sail makers. Because they are in trade, and have a history of working on the stage, they struggle for respectability among the locals and are considered disreputable by their English peers. Johnson uses this disparity to illustrate the differences between the cultures, and also to show how so-called civilization affected what was previously considered paradise. A contributor for Kirkus Reviews wrote, "skilled and graceful from page to page." Stephen Oxenham, in a review for World Literature Today, called the book "a rich tapestry of interwoven histories and relationships, indeed evocative of a journey between islands washed by the same sea." He added that "there are times when Johnson achieves a real emotional junction with the reader and the power and tragedy of events is communicated with strength." Andrea Kempf, writing for Library Journal, commented that "the vivid depictions of colonial life … form a vital core of this engaging coming-of-age novel."

Belief tells the story of William McQuiggan, whose abusive childhood left him a maladjusted, bitter adult with a drinking problem and an inability to own up to his own mistakes. Living in rural New Zealand, he abuses his wife both physically and verbally, until a questionable vision causes him to abandon his family to search for God. In an article for Kirkus Reviews, a contributor remarked that Johnson tackles "a serious subject, treated respectfully, but William's search for faith continues to seem prompted more by plot than character." A contributor for Publishers Weekly found some of the conclusion weak, but overall remarked that "Johnson's writing is strong, her characterizations convincing, and the novel incorporates some fine subthemes about racial discrimination and family dynamics."