Dorothy Johnston (born 1948) is an Australian author of both crime and literary fiction. She has published novels, short stories and essays. Born in

Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River, ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, Australia, Johnston trained as a teacher at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...

and later worked as a researcher in the education field. She lived in

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

from 1979 to 2008, and currently lives in Ocean Grove, Victoria (Australia). She is a former President of Canberra PEN. She was a founding member of the ''Seven Writers Group'', also known as ''Seven Writers'' or the ''Canberra Seven,'' established in March 1980. Five of the original members ceased with the group, but Johnston and Margaret Barbalet continued with new writers. She was a member of ''Writers Against Nuclear Arms'', with her novel ''Maralinga, My Love'', focusing on the impacts of nuclear testing in Australia.

Awards and grants

* 1987 - shortlisted

Miles Franklin Award The Miles Franklin Literary Award is an annual literary prize awarded to "a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases". The award was set up according to the will of Miles Franklin (1879–195 ...

for ''Ruth'' * 1988 - highly commended ABC / ABA Bicentennial Literary Award for ''Maralinga, My Love'' * 1988 - Australia Council fellowship * 1991 - ACT Literary Award (grant) to complete a book of stories about life in Canberra * 1998 - shortlisted

for ''One for the Master'' * 2001 - joint winner ACT Book of the Year for ''The Trojan Dog'' * 2001 - highly commended

Davitt Award The Davitt Awards are literary awards which are presented annually by the Sisters in Crime Australia association. The awards are named in honour of Ellen Davitt (1812–1879) who wrote Australia's first mystery novel, ''Force and Fraud'' in 1865 ...

for ''The Trojan Dog''

Bibliography

Novels

Her books include the Sandra Mahoney quartet of mystery novels.

Sandra Mahoney series

* '' The Trojan Dog'' (2000) * ''The White Tower'' (2003) * ''Eden'' (2007) * ''The Fourth Season'' (2014)

Sea-Change Mystery series

* ''Through a Camel's Eye'' (2016) * ''The Swan Island Connection'' (2017)

Standalone novels

* ''Tunnel Vision'' (1984) * ''Ruth'' (1986) * ''Maralinga, My Love'' (1988) * ''One for the Master'' (1997) * ''The House at Number 10'' (2005)

Short stories

* "The New Parliament House" and "The Boatman Of Lake Burley Griffin", published in ''Canberra Tales: Stories'' (1988) (reprinted as ''The Division of Love: Stories'', 1995); ''Below the Water Line'' (1999) and ''The Invisible Thread, A Hundred Years of Words'' (2012) * "A Christmas Story", published in ''Motherlove'' (1996) * "Two Wrecks", published in ''Best Australian Stories'' (2008) and ''Best Australian Stories: A Ten-year Collection'' (2011) * "Quicksilver's Ride", published in ''Best Australian Stories'' (2009) Essays * "Female Sleuths And Family Matters: Can Genre and Literary Fiction Coalesce?", published in ''Australian Book Review'' (2000) * "A Script With No Words", published in ''HEAT New Series 1'' (2001) * "Disturbing Undertones", published in ''The Griffith Review'' (2007) * "But when she was bad...", published in ''The Australian Literary Review'' (2008) * "The sounds of silence", published in ''The Age'' (2009) * "Fiction's ever present danger", published in ''Spectrum'' (January 2011)

References

External links

Home page
1948 births People from Geelong 20th-century Australian novelists 21st-century Australian novelists Australian essayists Australian women novelists Australian women short story writers Writers from Canberra Writers from Victoria (Australia) Living people 20th-century Australian women writers 21st-century Australian women writers 20th-century Australian short story writers 21st-century Australian short story writers 20th-century essayists 21st-century essayists {{Australia-writer-stub