E. K. Johnston

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
E. K. Johnston
BornEmily Kate Johnston
young adult fiction
Notable works
  • A Thousand Nights
  • Exit, Pursued by a Bear
Website
ekjohnston.ca

Emily Kate Johnston, who publishes as E.K. Johnston, is a Canadian novelist and forensic archaeologist.[2]

Career

Johnston started writing fan fiction in 2002, and wrote her first manuscript in 2009.[3] Her first book, The Story of Owen: Dragon Slayer of Trondheim, was published in 2014, and is set in an alternate present-day Ontario where dragons are both real and a menace. The review in The New York Times called the book "a clever first step in the career of a novelist who ... has many more songs to sing",[4] it was nominated for the William C. Morris Award in 2015.[2] A sequel, Prairie Fire, followed in 2015.

Johnston's third book was

C.S. Lewis's descriptions of the desert in The Horse and His Boy inspired Johnston in writing her own novel set in the desert.[5] A companion book, Spindle, followed in 2016, which was a reinterpretation of Sleeping Beauty.[6]

Her fifth novel, Exit, Pursued By A Bear, was published in 2016. Inspired by Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, it tells the story of cheer-leading captain Hermione Winters, who discovers she is pregnant after being sexually assaulted at a camp party. It was written partially as a challenge, and partially as a response to Stephen Woodworth's 2013 bill to re-criminalise abortion.[7] It was named a "Book of the Year" by several organisations, including NPR,[8] Publishers Weekly,[9] and the New York Public Library.[10] It won the Canadian Children's Book Centre's Amy Mathers Teen Book Award in 2017.[11]

A Star Wars fan,[12] Johnston was asked to write a book on the character Ahsoka Tano. Published in October 2016,[13] Ahsoka fills in the gap between her appearances in The Clone Wars and Rebels. Her second Star Wars novel, Queen's Shadow, was released in March 2019.[14] Featuring Padme Amidala, Queen's Shadow is set in the years between the events of The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones.[15] Additionally, she has also written the story By Whatever Sun, focusing on Miara Larte, a character Johnston created within Ahsoka, and set during the events of A New Hope.

Johnston describes her novel That Inevitable Victorian Thing as a "[n]ear-future Sci-fi Canadian Idealistic Romance".[16] It was published in 2017.

She credits her discipline in academic writing for helping her time management while writing prose; and states she is a fast writer, the composition ofA Thousand Nights taking "about 20 days",[3]. She advises early and young writers to learn to finish projects as practice in self-discipline and editing.[7]

Among her favorite authors are

C.S. Lewis,[3] and Holly Black.[2] She plays the alto saxophone and the clarinet.[2]

Johnston released another Star Wars novel, Queen's Peril, on June 2, 2020.[17]

Personal life

Johnston is

demisexual.[18][19]

Bibliography

Novels

Short stories

  • Work In Progress (2017) (in Three Sides of A Heart: Stories about Love Triangles anthology edited by Natalie Parker)

Star Wars

Dungeons & Dragons

Awards

  • 2015: William C. Morris Award, shortlist (The Story of Owen: Dragon Slayer of Trondheim)
  • 2017: Amy Mathers Teen Book Award in 2017, winner (Exit, Pursued By A Bear)

References

  1. ^ "Johnston, E K". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, eds. John Clute and David Langford. Entry by Clute, updated 2021-10-21. Retrieved 2022-05-02.
  2. ^ a b c d "2015 Morris Award: An Interview with Finalist E. K. Johnston – The Hub". The Hub. 2015-01-28. Retrieved 2018-10-04.
  3. ^ a b c "E.K. Johnston Discusses A Thousand Nights : The Children's Book Review". www.thechildrensbookreview.com. 27 July 2016. Retrieved 2018-10-05.
  4. ^ "Where There's Smoke". Retrieved 2018-10-05.
  5. ^ Johnston, E. K. (2015-10-14). "CS Lewis's The Horse and His Boy: the best guide to writing deserts?". the Guardian. Retrieved 2018-10-05.
  6. ^ "Read an excerpt from E.K. Johnston's 'Spindle' – exclusive". EW.com. Retrieved 2018-10-05.
  7. ^ a b "YA author E.K. Johnston on what we can learn from William Shakespeare | CBC Books". CBC. Retrieved 2018-10-05.
  8. ^ "NPR's Book Concierge". NPR.org. Retrieved 2018-10-05.
  9. ^ "Best Books 2016 Publishers Weekly". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved 2018-10-05.
  10. ^ "New York Public Library Reveals its List of Best Books for Kids and Teens Just in Time for The Holidays". The New York Public Library. Retrieved 2018-10-05.
  11. ^ "Amy Mathers Teen Book Award – Canadian Children's Book Centre". Canadian Children's Book Centre. Retrieved 2018-10-05.
  12. ^ "Star Wars: Ahsoka YA novel announced". Flickering Myth. 2016-03-31. Retrieved 2018-10-05.
  13. ^ "New STAR WARS Novel Featuring Ahsoka Tano Announced (Exclusive) | Nerdist". Nerdist. 2016-03-31. Archived from the original on 2018-08-10. Retrieved 2018-10-05.
  14. ^ Chhibber, Preeti (2018-08-01). "E.K. Johnston and the women of Star Wars". Syfy. Archived from the original on 2018-10-05. Retrieved 2018-10-05.
  15. ^ "It's the Padmé Amidala Renaissance, We're All Just Living In It". www.themarysue.com. 23 July 2018. Retrieved 2018-10-05.
  16. ^ "Blog Tour: That Inevitable Victorian Thing by E.K. Johnston". www.fictionfare.com. Retrieved 2018-10-05.
  17. ^ "Queen's Peril proves Star Wars stories are best told out of order". dorksideoftheforce.com. 2 June 2020. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
  18. ^ "This New Fantasy Novel Imagines A World Where Queerness Is Actually Accepted". Them. 2019-06-13. Retrieved 2023-02-11.
  19. ^ "Love Letters In D-major". Emily Kate Johnston. 2016-06-27. Retrieved 2023-02-11.

External links

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