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Susan Johnson Susan Johnson i(A32697 works by) (birth name: Susan Ruth Johnson)
Born: Established: 1956 Brisbane, Queensland, ;
Gender: Female
Expatriate assertion
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Works By

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1 An Imagined Life Susan Johnson , 2024 single work column
— Appears in: The Monthly , March 2024; (p. 52-58)
'The article delves into the life and literary world of David Malouf, an acclaimed Australian writer, exploring the intersection of his upbringing in Queensland and his artistic endeavors. It examines the juxtaposition between Malouf's classical education and his immersion in the vibrant yet often dismissed culture of the Gold Coast. It elucidates Malouf's profound connection to the landscapes that shaped him and his relentless pursuit of artistic expression.' (Publication abstract) 
1 Daddy’s Girl Susan Johnson , 2024 single work short story
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 29 January 2024;
1 Prime Time Susan Johnson , 2023 single work short story
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 15-21 April 2023;
1 5 y separately published work icon Aphrodite's Breath : A Memoir Susan Johnson , Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2023 25667067 2023 single work autobiography

'What happens when you take your 85-year-old mother to live with you on a Greek island? A strikingly original, funny, and forensic examination of love and finding home from the author of From Where I Fell

'In life, as in myth, women are the ones who are supposed to stay home like Penelope, weaving at their looms, rather than leaving home like Odysseus. Meet eighty-five-year-old Barbara and her sixty-two-year-old writer daughter Susan, who asked her mother—on a whim—if she wanted to accompany her to live on the Greek island of Kythera.

'What follows is a moving unravelling of the mother–daughter relationship told in poetic, irresistible prose.

'Aphrodite's Breath is a strikingly original, funny and forensic examination of love and finding home, amid the stories of the people, olives and wonders of the birthplace of Aphrodite.' (Publication summary) 

1 3 y separately published work icon From Where I Fell Susan Johnson , Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2021 20850071 2021 single work novel

'An anguished email from Pamela Robinson in Australia to her ex-husband in Paris accidentally ends up in the inbox of New York State teacher Chrisanthi Woods. Chrisanthi is sympathetic to Pamela's struggles and the women begin to tell each other the stories and secrets of their lives.

'Pamela, responsible for raising her three sons, must re-invent the meaning of home following her divorce, and Chrisanthi, her dreams long dampened, must find home by leaving it. Temperamental opposites, their emails turn into an exhilarating and provocative exchange of love, loss and fresh beginnings, by turns amusing, frank and confronting.' (Publication summary)

1 Elsewhere : On Not Being Home—Creativity as Expatriation Susan Johnson , 2019 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 19 no. 1 2019;
'So here we are, alive in this mythical place, not Kalymnos, the first island on which Charmian Clift and George Johnston lived in the Aegean, but Hydra, that many-headed monster that wooed and seduced and repelled and wounded so many. ‘Oh, Leonard Cohen’s house is just up the road. You must go and see it,’ someone said to me. ‘There are old people still alive who knew the Johnstons,’ said someone else. I read recently a newspaper article about the death of that famous Cohen muse, Marianne Ihlen, and the story was accompanied by a black and white photograph of Cohen playing a guitar, a woman with her eyes closed resting up against him. ‘Cohen with his girlfriend Marianne when they lived on Hydra in the early ‘60s,’ reads the caption, except it’s not his blond Norwegian girlfriend Marianne Ihlen with her eyes closed, a rapturous expression on her face, but Australian writer Charmian Clift.' (Introduction)
1 Becoming Witting Susan Johnson , 2017 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Visit 2017; (p. vii-xiv)

 'There are many visits in Amy Witting’s first novel, published in 1977. At its centre is the mysterious visit to Bangoree of the celebrated Australian poet Roderick Fitzallan – but, this being a Witting novel set in a fictional town in small-minded rural Australia, a poet uncelebrated in Bangoree, where ‘a poet would be a vagrant, by definition’.'

1 The Forgotten Giant Susan Johnson , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 9 April 2016; (p. 12)

— Review of Our Man Elsewhere : In Search of Alan Moorehead Thornton McCamish , 2016 single work biography
1 A Very Private Man Susan Johnson , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 27 February 2016; (p. 18)

— Review of Mick : A Life of Randolph Stow Suzanne Falkiner , 2016 single work biography
1 Greek Myths of a Literary Pair Susan Johnson , 2016 single work column
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 22-23 October 2016; (p. 20)
1 The Words We Loved Charlotte Wood , Geraldine Brooks , Graeme Simsion , Michael Robotham , Chris Wallace-Crabbe , Helen Garner , Favel Parrett , Gregory Day , Fiona Wright , Alexis Wright , Robert Adamson , Debra Adelaide , Lisa Gorton , Abigail Ulman , Christos Tsiolkas , Maxine Beneba Clarke , Susan Johnson , Kristina Olsson , Peter Goldsworthy , Tim Flannery , Malcolm Knox , Shane Maloney , Thomas Keneally , Don Watson , Anita Heiss , Omar Musa , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 12-13 December 2015; (p. 24-26) The Saturday Age , 12-13 December 2015; (p. 30)
Famous Australian writers pick their favourite reads of 2015
2 12 y separately published work icon The Landing Susan Johnson , Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2015 8828967 2015 single work novel

'Jonathan Lott, recently divorced, is about to find how much love really matters in a funny, delightful and poignant novel that lays out the human condition - looking for love in all of its many forms with secrets, polite lies, desperation, compromise and joy.

Jonathan Lott is confused. His wife has left him for a woman and he doesn't like living alone. Is it true that an about-to-be-divorced man in possession of a good fortune is in need of a new wife? Would Penny Collins do, divorced herself, school teacher and frustrated artist? What about beautiful Anna, blown in from who knows where, trailing broken marriages behind her? There's a lot happening at The Landing, where Jonathan has his beach house, and he's about to find out how much love matters.' (Source: Publisher's website)

1 Missing Christopher Susan Johnson , 2014 single work review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 13 December 2014; (p. 31)

— Review of Missing Christopher : A Mother's Story of Tragedy, Grief and Love Jayne Newling , 2014 single work autobiography
'A hundred years ago - and further back - infant and child mortality figures were high. Death was commonplace and most knew loss intimately...'
1 On With the Show Susan Johnson , 2013 single work column
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 13-14 April 2013; (p. 30-31)
1 Twilight Years Susan Johnson , 2013 single work column
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 13-14 April 2013; (p. 20)
1 [Review] The Childhood of Jesus Susan Johnson , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: The Courier Mail , 2-3 March 2013; (p. 22)

— Review of The Childhood of Jesus J. M. Coetzee , 2013 single work novel
1 Australian Summer i "O, tattooed youth,", Susan Johnson , 2013 single work poetry
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 23-24 February 2013; (p. 22)
1 Black Russian Susan Johnson , 2013 single work column
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 23-24 February 2013; (p. 16-18)
'Anger and humour dance side by side as author Melissa Lucashenko explores the complexities of identity.'
1 Triple Threat Susan Johnson , 2013 single work biography
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 16-17 February 2013; (p. 15-17)
1 League of Gentlemen Susan Johnson , 2013 single work column
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 9 November 2013; (p. 10)
'The female force behind hit literary event Women of Letters have invited a bunch of blokes to reveal their inner scribe...'
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