Stephanie Johnson
Stephanie Patricia Johnson MNZM (born 1961) is a poet, playwright, and short story writer from New Zealand. She lives in Auckland with her husband, film editor Tim Woodhouse, although she lived in Australia for much of her twenties. Many of her books have been published there, and her non-fiction book West Island, about New Zealanders in Australia, is partly autobiographical.
Also recorded as Stephanie Patricia Johnson
Stephanie Johnson
New Zealand Government, Office of the Governor-General · https: gg.govt.nz/image-galleries/8410/media?page=6 · CC BY 4.0
- Name
- Stephanie Johnson
- Born
- 1961
- Birthplace
- Auckland, New Zealand
- Occupation
- Author
- Awards
- Deutz Medal for Fiction
- Nationality
- New Zealand
- Honours
- Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit · Bruce Mason Playwriting Award · Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement (Fiction)
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Stephanie Johnson. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q43685552
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Stephanie Johnson • Honorific Suffix — MNZM • Born — 1961 • Birthplace — Auckland, New Zealand • Occupation — Author • Language — English • Notable Works — The Shag Incident • Awards — Deutz Medal for Fiction
Background
Background
Johnson was born in Auckland in 1961.
Career
Career
Johnson has taught creative writing at the University of Auckland, the University of Waikato, Auckland University of Technology and Massey University. She co-founded the Auckland Writers' Festival with Peter Wells, and served as creative director and trustee. In 2025, it was reported that Johnson’s book, Obligate Carnivore, was disqualified from the 2026 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards because its cover was created using artificial intelligence.
Novels and short stories
Novels and short stories
• The Glass Whittler (1989, New Women's Press), short stories • Crimes of Neglect (1992, New Women's Press), novel • All the Tenderness Left in the World (1993, Otago University Press), short stories • The Heart’s Wild Surf (1996, Random House), novel • The Whistler (1998, Vintage, Random House), novel • Belief (2000, Vintage, Random House), novel • The Shag Incident (2002, Vintage, Random House), novel • Music From A Distant Room (2004, Vintage, Random House) • Drowned Sprat and Other Stories (2005, Vintage, Random House), short stories • John Tomb's Head (2006, Vintage, Random House), novel • Swimmers' Rope (2008, Vintage, Random House) novel • The Open World (2012, Vintage, Random House), novel • The Writing Class (2013, Vintage, Random House), novel • The Writers’ Festival (2015, Vintage, Random House), novel • Playing for Both Sides (2016, Bridget Williams Books), creative non-fiction • West Island: Five Twentieth-century New Zealanders in Australia (2019, Otago University Press), creative non-fiction • Everything Changes (2021, Penguin Random House), novel
Plays and radio dramas
Plays and radio dramas
• Accidental Phantasies (1985), stage play • Castle In the Harbour (1987), radio drama • Folie à Deux (1995, with Stuart Hoar), stage play • Hard Hitting Documentary (1995), radio drama • Sparrow’s Pearls (1996), radio drama • Trout (1996), radio drama
Poetry
Poetry
• The Bleeding Ballerina (1987, Hard Echo Press), poetry • Moody Bitch (2003, Godwit), poetry
Fellowships and residencies
Fellowships and residencies
Johnson received the 2000 New Zealand Post Katherine Mansfield Prize, allowing her to travel to Menton, France. She received the University of Auckland Literary Fellowship in 2001. In 2016 she was selected as the Randell Cottage Writer in Residence.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
- Auckland
Published works
Johnson has published novels, poetry, plays, and collections of short stories.
Honours and awards
In 1985, Johnson won the Bruce Mason Playwriting Award. In the Montana New Zealand Book Awards, The Whistler, was shortlisted for the fiction award in 1999 and Belief was shortlisted in 2001. The Shag Incident was awarded the Deutz Medal for Fiction at the 2003 Montana New Zealand Book Awards. Johnson also won the 1996 Dymocks/Quote Unquote Reader's Poll, Best New Zealand Book for The Heart’s Wild Surf and Crimes of Neglect, was shortlisted for the 1993 Wattie Book Awards. Music From a Distant Room (in 2006) and John Tomb's Head (in 2008) were nominated for International Dublin Literary Award. In the 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours, Johnson was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to literature. In 2022, she received the Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in Fiction.
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Stephanie Johnson (author), revision 1371566003 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 15 September 2026.
Elsewhere in Books
39,529 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Stephanie BolsterAuthor
- Stephanie BorgesAuthor
- Stephanie BurtAuthor
- Stephanie GarberAuthor
- Stephanie StricklandAuthor
- Stephanos ConstantinidesAuthor
- Stephanos PapadopoulosAuthor
- Stephanos SahlikisAuthor
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Stephanie Johnson?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.