JOHNSTON, Sean 1966-

PERSONAL: Born 1966, in Asquith, Saskatchewan, Canada; son of Gerry (a structural engineer) and Hettie Johnston. Education: Carleton University, B.A.; University of New Brunswick, M.A., 2002.

ADDRESSES: Home—Box 474, Asquith, Saskatchewan S0K 0J0, Canada. E-mail—sean. [email protected].

CAREER: Writer, poet, journalist, and highway surveyor.

MEMBER: Writers Union of Canada.

AWARDS, HONORS: David Adams Richards Prize, 2002; ReLit Award for Short Fiction, 2003.

WRITINGS:

A Day Does Not Go By (short stories), Nightwood Editions (Roberts Creek, British Columbia, Canada), 2002.

Bull Island, Gaspereau Press (Kentville, Nova Scotia, Canada), 2004.

A Long Day inside the Buildings, JackPine Press (LaRonge, Saskatchewan, Canada), 2004.

WORK IN PROGRESS: All This Town Remembers, a novel.

SIDELIGHTS: A poet and short-story writer, Sean Johnston published his first short-story collection, A Day Does Not Go By, in 2002. In twenty-seven vignettes, Johnston provides a panorama of small incidents with large resonance. A young man at a hospital finds himself caught between a bickering older couple, only to find out that his own wife is dying. A father's wake provides a curious refuge for an embittered son. An old couple return from a vacation to find a gruesome scene on their front lawn. "Shards of intimacy, despair, compassion, and brutality emerge via this uncanny banality," noted Quill & Quire reviewer Karen Luscombe.

"Johnston is particularly fine at presenting relatively stock situations . . . from angles slightly askew," concluded Danforth Review publisher Michael Bryson. Noting his similarity to Raymond Carver, Bryson asked Sean Johnston if he felt influenced by the famous minimalist. "I think I was influenced more by my journalism training than by Carver and his types. I've never understood the idea of minimalism; there is more description and room in Carver's stories than he's given credit for. Yet I love the idea of minimalism in that, as a reader, I've got no desire to read another description of an idyllic scene or a horrible disaster. I have my own ideas of those things, as any reader does, and the written word cannot measure up. So my idea is just to do enough to trigger a response in the reader, and let their unconscious do the work," Johnston explained.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Books in Canada, May, 2003, Patricia Robertson, review of A Day Does Not Go By.

Broken Pencil, number 21, Mark Sauner, review of ADay Does Not Go By.

Daily Gleaner, February 8, 2003, Ingrid Mueller, review of A Day Does Not Go By.

Danforth Review (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), March 3, 2002, review of A Day Does Not Go By, and "TDR Interview: Sean Johnston."

Malahat Review, summer, 2003, Joan Givner, review of A Day Does Not Go By.

Quill & Quire, January, 2002, Karen Luscombe, review of A Day Does Not Go By.

Toronto Star, November 10, 2002, Ray Robertson, review of A Day Does Not Go By.