E. K. Johnston

E. K. Johnston
BornEmily Kate Johnston
Huron East, Ontario, Canada[1]
OccupationNovelist, forensic archaeologist
LanguageEnglish
NationalityCanadian
GenreSpeculative fiction, 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 A Thousand Nights, a retelling of One Thousand and One Nights. 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 of A 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 Jo Graham, Elizabeth Wein, Tessa Gratton, Kiersten White, Madeleine L'Engle, J.R.R. Tolkien, David Eddings, 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 biromantic and demisexual.[18][19]

Bibliography

Novels

  • The Story of Owen: Dragon Slayer of Trondheim (2014)
  • Prairie Fire (2015)
  • A Thousand Nights (2015)
  • Spindle (2016) (also published as Kingdom of Sleep)
  • Exit, Pursued By A Bear (2016)
  • That Inevitable Victorian Thing (2017)
  • The Afterward (2019)
  • Aetherbound (2021)
  • Pretty Furious (2024)
  • Titan of the Stars (2025)
  • Sky on Fire (2025)

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. ^ Kois, Dan (9 May 2014). "Where There's Smoke". The New York Times. 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. 4 October 2017. 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.