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Luke Johnson Luke Johnson i(A123399 works by)
Gender: Male
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Works By

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1 Disney to Acquire The Bible Ltd Luke Johnson , 2023 single work prose
— Appears in: The Writing Mind : Creative Writing Responses to Images of the Living Brain 2023;
1 The Supper i "Now it is the appointed Time, the Hour at which Man and Bird and Beast", Luke Johnson , 2022 single work poetry
— Appears in: Griffith Review , no. 78 2022; (p. 107)
1 Sacraments of Guilt : Reconciling with Divorce Luke Johnson , 2022 single work autobiography
— Appears in: Griffith Review , no. 75 2022; (p. 208-219)
1 2 y separately published work icon Ferocious Animals Luke Johnson , Canberra : Recent Work Press , 2021 21210652 2021 selected work short story

'An early exchange of Christmas presents leads to a violent outcome for a young drunk couple. A schoolboy finds himself at the centre of a cruel playground bullying ritual. A teenage girl lies to her mother about a sexual assault involving her little sister. A father ruins grand final day for the son who idolises him. 

'The thirteen stories in Luke Johnson’s debut collection do not shy away from life’s brutalities. Nor do they overlook those moments of genuine  intimacy, humour and revelation that imbue the tragic with purpose and with pathos. Set in regional Australia in an era before mobile phones and the internet, these stories will remind you of who and what we are beneath all the cool digital interfaces: animals, burning with ferocity for a mouthful of life’s flesh.'

Source : publisher's blurb

1 Littleproud!!! Luke Johnson , 2020 single work prose
— Appears in: Island , no. 160 2020; (p. 104)
1 Thanks to the Pandemic, I’m Now Working from Home! Luke Johnson , 2020 single work
— Appears in: TEXT Special Issue Website Series , April no. 58 2020;
1 The Conditional Past Luke Johnson , 2018 single work short story
— Appears in: Southerly , December vol. 78 no. 3 2018; (p. 142-153)
'It would have started the usual way, with a squabble over who got first go at hiding and who had to count. My older brother cam would have used his age to pull rank on me, and i would have complained that it wasn’t fair because i couldn’t get away with doing the same to our younger brother. at just two and a half years of age though, Robbie would have been too little to be left in charge of counting. Too little for counting, too little for seeking, too little for anything more than jumping out and exclaiming, “found you!” as though the very object of the game were to surprise the person who’d come looking for him by finding them first.' (Publication abstract)
1 A Long Time between Drinks Luke Johnson , 2018 single work review
— Appears in: TEXT : Journal of Writing and Writing Courses , October vol. 22 no. 2 2018;

— Review of Australian Short Stories no. 66 2018 periodical issue short story

'In a 1987 interview with Kevin Brophy and Nolan Tyrrell for Going Down Swinging, Bruce Pascoe explained his reason for starting Australian Short Stories magazine five years earlier:

As a writer of short stories I was disappointed with what was happening to my stories when they were published. Apart from the few stories I got published in The Sun and The Sydney Sun-Herald, I wasn’t getting any readers… I started Australian Short Stories because I was offended by the rates of pay, offended by the lack of readership, and felt that the intelligence of the readership was still there. (Pascoe quoted in Going Down Swinging 1987)

'For short story writers living in Australia in 2018, the disappointing situation Pascoe describes is more or less unrecognisable – newspapers accepting submissions for short fiction, indeed!' (Introduction)

1 Happiness in Repetition Luke Johnson , 2018 single work essay
— Appears in: TEXT : Journal of Writing and Writing Courses , April vol. 22 no. 1 2018;

'One imagines that thumbtacked to the pinboard above H C Gildfind’s writing desk (or perhaps tattooed on the top of her dominant typing hand) are the words, ‘Happiness is repetition.’ If they hadn’t been quoted midway through the penultimate story of her debut collection The Worry Front (or perhaps misquoted: is this a reduction of Milan Kundera’s well-known ‘happiness is the longing for repetition’? then I’d have been forced to pencil them into the text myself.'  (Introduction)

1 When We Were Eight Together Luke Johnson , 2017 single work short story
— Appears in: Island , no. 149 2017; (p. 30)

'I should have known straight away, the second I spotted him in the doorway. He was dressed in his dirty blue mechanic's overalls and standing very straight. he never stood this straight. Mum was always chipping him for slouching. 'Maybe if you got off my back,' he used to joke. On this day he didn't look jokey. He looked tall and confused, like a student who had been sent to the classroom on an errand but couldn't remember what it was.' (Introduction)

1 This Muleser i "takes short mortgage on the girls in flannelette,", Luke Johnson , 2016 single work poetry
— Appears in: Meniscus , May vol. 4 no. 1 2016; (p. 23)
1 This Boxer i "moves between tents, bandage-ready and cool,", Luke Johnson , 2016 single work poetry
— Appears in: Meniscus , May vol. 4 no. 1 2016; (p. 22)
1 Rural Sonnets Luke Johnson , 2016 sequence poetry
— Appears in: Meniscus , May vol. 4 no. 1 2016; (p. 22-23)
1 Ferocious Animals Luke Johnson , 2016 single work single work short story
— Appears in: Griffith Review , July no. 53 2016; (p. 137-143)

'My dad woke me early to go down town and buy streamers. It was 1989 and our team was in the grand final for the second year running. I was eight. The year before we’d been in the grand final against the Bulldogs and had been beaten 24-12. It was a hard loss for a seven year old. This year we were in the grand final against the Raiders. I didn’t think we could lose, since in our house the Raiders were made fun of for looking like Milo tins. This was my mum’s contribution to the footy, deciding what pantry items the teams’ jerseys most looked like. We were a traditional household in this way.'  (Publication abstract)

1 The Names of Dead Horses Luke Johnson , 2015 single work short story
— Appears in: Westerly , vol. 60 no. 2 2015; (p. 79-85)
1 Toasting an Honorary Jet and Okay Son-of-a-Bitch Luke Johnson , 2015 single work short story
— Appears in: Mascara Literary Review , October no. 18 2015;
1 Ringbark (From : On Dead Highways) Luke Johnson , 2015 extract novel
— Appears in: Going Down Swinging , no. 36 2015; (p. 1-74)
1 Review : Down to the River Luke Johnson , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , May no. 371 2015; (p. 53)

— Review of Down to the River Sally J. Finn , 2015 single work novel
1 Review : Westerly 59.2 Luke Johnson , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , March no. 369 2015; (p. 67)

— Review of Westerly vol. 59 no. 2 November 2014 periodical issue
1 A Small Dead Thing Luke Johnson , 2014 single work short story
— Appears in: Mascara Literary Review , October no. 16 2014;
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