Daisy Johnson (writer)
{{short description|British novelist and short story writer (born 31 October 1990)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Daisy Johnson
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| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1990}}
| birth_place = Paignton, England
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| occupation = Writer
| language = English
| nationality = British
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| alma_mater = Lancaster University, Somerville College, Oxford
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| genre = Novels, short stories
| notableworks = Everything Under (2018)
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Daisy Johnson (born 31 October 1990) is a British novelist and short story writer.{{Cite web|url=https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2018/08/daisy-johnson-if-i-weren-t-living-my-writing-i-d-be-shepherd|title=Daisy Johnson: 'If I weren't living off my writing I'd be a shepherd'|website=www.newstatesman.com|language=en|date=2018-08-22|access-date=2018-10-13}} Her debut novel, Everything Under, was shortlisted for the 2018 Man Booker Prize,{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jul/24/man-booker-prize-2018-longlist-nick-drnaso-sabrina-ondaatje-graphic-novel|title=Man Booker prize 2018 longlist includes graphic novel for the first time|last=Flood|first=Alison|date=2018-07-23|newspaper=The Guardian|language=en|access-date=2018-07-24}} and beside Eleanor Catton she is the youngest nominee in the prize's history. For her short stories, she has won three awards since 2014.
Biography
Johnson was born in Paignton, Devon, in 1990, and grew up around Saffron Walden, Essex.{{Cite web|url=http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/alumni/news/lancaster-graduate-is-youngest-ever-booker-prize-nominee|title=Lancaster graduate praised for Booker Prize shortlist achievement|website=www.lancaster.ac.uk|language=en|date=2018-10-17|access-date=2018-10-13}} She was a pupil at a Quaker school, Friends' School Saffron Walden, completing her A-levels in 2009.{{Cite journal |last=Ring |first=Elisabeth |date=2013 |title=Impressions & memories from past Quartet members |url=https://oldscholars.com/StaticFiles/FriendsITS_0000000099.pdf |journal=Friends' School Saffron Walden Old Scholars' Magazine |pages=31}} She earned her bachelor's degree in English and Creative Writing from Lancaster University before earning a master's degree in Creative Writing at Somerville College, Oxford, where she also worked at Blackwell's bookshop.{{Cite web|url=https://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/news/alumna-daisy-johnson-shortlisted-for-man-booker-prize-2018|title=Alumna Daisy Johnson Shortlisted for Man Booker Prize 2018|last=University of Oxford|website=Oxford University Department for Continuing Education|language=en|date= 2018-09-24|access-date=2018-10-13}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/16892649.daisy-johnson-oxford-author-youngest-ever-on-man-booker-shortlist/|title=Oxford author youngest ever on Man Booker shortlist|website=Oxford Mail|language=en|date=2018-09-20|access-date=2018-10-13}} While at Oxford, she won the 2014 AM Heath Prize for fiction while working on her first short story collection, and had short stories published in The Warwick Review and the Boston Review.{{Cite news|url=http://blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk/mstcw/?p=679|title=MSt News: Daisy Johnson wins the 2014 AM Heath Prize|date=2014-12-18|work=Master's in Creative Writing|publisher=Oxford University|access-date=2018-10-13|language=en-GB}}{{Cite web|url=https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/writingprog/warwickreview/mar2014/|title=The Warwick Review Vol.8 No.1 Mar 2014|website=warwick.ac.uk|language=en-GB|access-date=2018-10-13}}{{Cite web|url=http://bostonreview.net/fiction/daisy-johnson-fox-bedroom|title=There Was a Fox in the Bedroom|last=Johnson|first=Daisy|date=2015-01-07|website=Boston Review|language=en|access-date=2018-10-13}} Shortly after, she won the 2016 Harper's Bazaar short story prize for "What The House Remembers".{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.harpersbazaar.com/uk/culture/culture-news/news/a37086/shortstory2016winners/|title=Bazaar's Short Story Competition|date=2016-05-06|magazine=Harper's BAZAAR|access-date=2018-10-13|language=en-GB}}
In 2015, she won a two-book deal with publisher Jonathan Cape for a collection of short stories and a novel.{{Cite news|url=http://blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk/mstcw/?p=719|title=MSt alumna Daisy Johnson 'On getting an offer for my writing …'|date=2015-03-02|work=Master's in Creative Writing|publisher=Oxford University|access-date=2018-10-13|language=en-GB}} The short story collection titled Fen was published in 2017. Set in the fens of England, it draws upon the memories of the area where Johnson grew up. It comprises a set of linked short stories, focusing on the experiences of women and girls in a small town. Johnson describes the collection as liminal and mythic.{{Cite web|last=Foyles|title=Daisy Johnson on Fen {{!}} Short stories, creative writing, landscape and gender|website=YouTube |date=2016-06-21|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S33cDE7pwK0|access-date=2018-10-13}} The collection won the 2017 Edge Hill Short Story Prize.{{Cite news|url=https://www.edgehill.ac.uk/news/2017/08/edge-hill-short-story-prize-2017-winner-announced/|title=Edge Hill Short Story Prize 2017 winner announced - News|date=2017-08-26|work=News|access-date=2018-10-13|language=en-GB|archive-date=5 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210905062912/https://www.edgehill.ac.uk/news/2017/08/edge-hill-short-story-prize-2017-winner-announced/|url-status=dead}}
Johnson followed Fen with her debut novel, Everything Under, in 2018. The novel focuses on the relationship between Gretel, a lexicographer, and her mother and is set against a backdrop of the British countryside. Gretel grows up on a canal boat with her mother and they invent a language to use between them. Gretel's mother abandons her when Gretel is sixteen, and the novel starts sixteen years later with a phone call. Johnson worked on the novel for around four years, starting it at the same time as her short story collection to challenge herself to write something longer. She went through at least five drafts of the book (which she has said had seeds in her studies of the Greek myth of king Oedipus),{{cite web|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2018/11/daisy-johnson-everything-under-interview|title=How 27-Year-Old Author Daisy Johnson Re-Invented the Oedipus Myth|work=Vanity Fair|first=Erin|last=Vanderhoof|date=2018-11-01}} made several changes to characters and setting,{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/oct/13/booker-shortlisted-authors-novels-inspiration|title=How I write: Man Booker shortlist authors reveal their inspirations|last1=Kushner|first1=Rachel|last2=Burns|first2=Anna|date=2018-10-13|newspaper=The Guardian|language=en|access-date=2018-10-13|last3=Edugyan|first3=Esi|last4=Robertson|first4=Robin|last5=Powers|first5=Richard|last6=Johnson|first6=Daisy}} and for a period, it was titled Eggtooth.{{Cite web|url=https://shortstoryaward.co.uk/longlists/2017|title=2017 Longlist - The Sunday Times Short Story Awards|website=shortstoryaward.co.uk|language=en|access-date=2018-10-13}}
Everything Under was shortlisted for the 2018 Man Booker Prize. Johnson is the youngest author to be shortlisted for the prize.{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-45587293|title=Daisy Johnson is youngest Booker nominee|date=2018-09-20|work=BBC News|access-date=2018-10-13|language=en-GB}}
Johnson currently lives in Oxford.{{Cite web|url=https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/107/1077945/daisy-johnson.html?tab=penguin-biography|title=Daisy Johnson|website=www.penguin.co.uk|language=en|access-date=2018-10-13}} Her favourite writers include Stephen King, Evie Wyld, Helen Oyeyemi and John Burnside. Her favourite poets include Robin Robertson and Sharon Olds.{{Cite news|url=http://americanshortfiction.org/2017/04/24/web-exclusive-interview-daisy-johnson/|title=Web Exclusive Interview: Daisy Johnson -|date=2017-04-24|work=American Short Fiction|access-date=2018-10-13|language=en-US|archive-date=14 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181014010125/http://americanshortfiction.org/2017/04/24/web-exclusive-interview-daisy-johnson/|url-status=dead}} Had she been unsuccessful as a writer, Johnson suggests that she would have been a shepherd.
Awards
- 2014: AM Heath Prize for fiction, winner
- 2016: Harper's Bazaar short story prize, winner ("What the House Remembers")
- 2017: Sunday Times Short Story Award, longlist ("Blood Rites"){{Cite news|url=http://blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk/mstcw/?p=1177|title=MSt alumna Daisy Johnson longlisted for Sunday Times EFG Short Story award|date=2017-02-13|work=Master's in Creative Writing|publisher=Oxford University|access-date=2018-10-13|language=en-GB}}
- 2017: Edge Hill Short Story Prize, winner (Fen){{Cite web |date=2022-06-20 |title=Previous shortlists and winners |url=https://sites.edgehill.ac.uk/shortstory/sample-page/previous-shortlists-and-winners/ |access-date=2025-04-18 |website=The Edge Hill Short Story Prize |language=en-GB}}
- 2018: Man Booker Prize shortlist (Everything Under)
- 2019: Desmond Elliott Prize longlist (Everything Under){{Cite web|url=https://desmondelliottprize.org.uk/the-2019-prize/the-2019-longlist/|title=The 2019 Longlist|website=The Desmond Elliott Prize|language=en|access-date=2019-11-01|archive-date=5 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210905062912/https://desmondelliottprize.org.uk/the-2019-prize/the-2019-longlist/|url-status=dead}}
Works
= Novels =
= Short story collections =
- Fen: Stories (2017), UK: Jonathan Cape; USA: Graywolf Press
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.harpersbazaar.com/uk/culture/culture-news/news/a37086/shortstory2016winners/ What the House Remembers] - short story published in Harper's Bazaar.
- [http://americanshortfiction.org/2017/03/31/bruise-size-shape-door-handle/ A Bruise the Size and Shape of a Door Handle] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200208234608/http://americanshortfiction.org/2017/03/31/bruise-size-shape-door-handle/ |date=8 February 2020 }} - short story published at American Short Fiction
- [http://bostonreview.net/fiction/daisy-johnson-fox-bedroom There Was a Fox in the Bedroom] - short story published in The Boston Review
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Category:21st-century British novelists
Category:21st-century English women writers
Category:21st-century British short story writers
Category:Alumni of Lancaster University
Category:Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford
Category:English women novelists