New Zealand Writers
JOHNSON, Stephanie
Johnson’s work is marked by a dry irony, a sharp-edged humour that focuses unerringly on the frailties and foolishness of her characters.
Author entry from The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature, edited by Roger Robinson and Nelson Wattie (1998). About the Companion entries View list of Companion contributors
JOHNSON, Stephanie (1961– ), is a versatile writer, moving from poetry to prose to plays for radio and the stage.
Born in Auckland, she has lived in that city as well as Sydney from 1985–90. After university studies in the early 1980s, she began her diverse output with The Bleeding Ballerina (1987), a powerful first collection of poems. This was followed by two collections of short stories, The Glass Whittler (1989) and All the Tenderness Left in the World (1993), and two novels, Crimes of Neglect (1992) and The Heart’s Wild Surf (1996). Her dramatic writing includes two stage plays, Accidental Phantasies (1985) and Folie à Deux (1995, with Stuart Hoar), and the radio dramas Castle In the Harbour (1987), Hard Hitting Documentary (1995), Sparrow’s Pearls (1996) and Trout (1996). She won the Bruce Mason Playwrights’ Award in 1986.
Johnson’s work is marked by a dry irony, a sharp-edged humour that focuses unerringly on the frailties and foolishness of her characters. Pomposity and self-delusion are favourite targets—the creative writing tutor in ‘A One-Page Statement’, the eager New Age clients in ‘The Deep Resounding’, the arrogant Werner in ‘Menschenfresser’, or the vicar’s wife in The Heart’s Wild Surf.
There is compassion, though, and sensitivity in the development of complex situations. The Heart’s Wild Surf, set in Fiji in 1918, is a subtle, delicately drawn, yet passionately intense portrayal of a family under immense strain. Johnson explores the McNabs’ personal and social crises within the wider contexts of late colonialism and the beginnings of new freedoms for women.
A purposeful sense of such larger concerns balances Johnson’s precision with the small details of situation, character and voice that give veracity and colour.
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Updated Information
The Bleeding Ballerina, was published in 1987. The poems' topics range from love, to children, to politics.
Stephanie Johnson was the recipient of the Meridian Energy 2000 Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship. Her science fiction / fantasy novel, The Whistler, was shortlisted for the 1999 Montana Book Award for fiction.
Johnson's next novel was Belief, published in 2000. In 1899 William McQuiggan leaves his young Australian wife and new-born twins in New Zealand and travels to America in search of God. The story follows him to Salt Lake City and Zion City and tells of how love and patience may triumph over violence and despair. Belief was shortlisted in the 2001 Montana New Zealand Book Awards.
The Shag Incident was published in 2002. It was awarded the Deutz Medal for Fiction in the Montana New Zealand Book Awards 2003. The Shag Incident was described by the judging panel as a book "clearly by a writer at the peak of her powers...she is fully deserving of the recognition of excellence that this award bestows".
Moody Bitch (2003) is a selection of Stephanie Johnson's poems from the last 20 years.
Music From a Distant Room (2004) is a book about how memory can shape our lives, about story-telling, fate, forgiveness and the search for meaning in loss.
Drowned Sprat and Other Stories (Random House, 2005) is Johnson's latest collection of short stories, comprised of 23 stories written over 16 years.
John Tomb's Head (Random House, 2006) is a return to the biting satire of contemporary New Zealand for Johnson.
Both Music From a Distant Room and John Tomb's Head, were nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 2006 and 2008 respectively.
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