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| Bret Anthony Johnston | |
|---|---|
| Name | Bret Anthony Johnston |
| Birth date | 1972 |
| Birth place | New Orleans |
| Occupation | Novelist, short story writer, essayist, teacher |
| Notable works | The Death of Santini; Remember Me Like This; Corpus Christi: Stories |
| Alma mater | Brown University; Iowa Writers' Workshop |
Bret Anthony Johnston is an American novelist, short story writer, memoirist, and educator known for fiction and nonfiction exploring family, memory, and the American South. He has published award-winning collections and a memoir, taught at leading creative writing programs, and contributed to magazines and anthologies. Johnston’s work intersects with contemporary literary scenes, regional traditions, and national conversations about narrative and identity.
Johnston was born in New Orleans, raised in Johnson City, Texas and the Texas Gulf Coast, and spent formative years in regions associated with Louisiana culture, Texas coastal life, and Gulf ecology. He attended Texas A&M University briefly before transferring to Brown University, where he studied under faculty linked to the Iowa Writers' Workshop tradition and American fiction lineages. He completed graduate work at the Iowa Writers' Workshop at University of Iowa, a program connected to alumni networks including Flannery O'Connor-era scholars, John Cheever-influenced critics, and contemporary writers who have shaped late 20th- and early 21st-century North American fiction.
Johnston’s career spans publication in literary magazines, book authorship, and roles in editorial and public literary institutions. Early publication venues include GQ, The Atlantic, The New Yorker-adjacent contributors, and literary journals tied to writers associated with HarperCollins and Random House. His short fiction and essays placed him among writers appearing in anthologies alongside contributors connected to The Paris Review, Ploughshares, and the Kenyon Review. Johnston has collaborated with and been promoted by editors and writers from houses such as Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Knopf, and independent presses that work with fellows from residencies like MacDowell and Yaddo. He has participated in festivals and symposiums organized by institutions including The New School, SXSW, National Book Festival, and regional literary centers in Houston and Austin.
Johnston’s book-length publications include a short story collection that engages coastal life and family dynamics and a memoir dealing with father-son relationships. His collection received attention from critics in outlets connected to The New York Times Book Review, Los Angeles Times Book Review, and literature programs at Columbia University. The memoir was widely reviewed in media affiliated with NPR, The Washington Post, and magazines associated with long-form nonfiction such as Harper's and The Atlantic Monthly. His stories appeared in compilations alongside pieces by writers associated with Alice Munro-influenced short-form traditions, contemporary realists connected to Richard Ford and Elizabeth Strout, and younger writers from workshops tied to Sewanee Writers' Conference and the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference.
Johnston has received fellowships, prizes, and recognitions from organizations and awards frequently associated with American literary achievement. His honors include prizes linked to institutions such as The American Academy of Arts and Letters, state arts councils like the Texas Commission on the Arts, and fellowships with ties to National Endowment for the Arts programs. He has been shortlisted and longlisted for awards administered by juries connected to PEN America, the Pulitzer Prize community, and prizes overseen by panels including members from The New Yorker and university presses like Oxford University Press and Yale University Press.
Johnston's personal background situates him within coastal and Southern milieus, with familial ties and experiences rooted in communities near Corpus Christi, Texas and the broader Gulf Coast. His life intersects with cultural institutions in New Orleans and Houston, and he has spoken publicly at venues linked to civic centers, museums, and libraries including events sponsored by Smithsonian affiliates, regional literary societies, and university-sponsored lecture series at Brown University and University of Texas campuses.
Johnston has taught creative writing and narrative workshops at established programs and universities tied to notable faculties. He has held positions at the University of Iowa writing programs, participated in summer and residency teaching at the Sewanee Writers' Conference, and served on faculties connected to graduate programs at Columbia University and University of Texas at Austin. He has been a visiting writer and lecturer at institutions including Yale University, Duke University, Princeton University, and state universities that host distinguished writers-in-residence programs.
Category:Living people Category:American novelists Category:American memoirists Category:Writers from New Orleans