Alexa Johnston

Last updated

Alexa Johnston
NationalityNew Zealander
Alma mater Northcote College, University of Auckland
GenreBiography, cookery
Notable worksSir Edmund Hillary: An Extraordinary Life, Ladies, a Plate
Notable awardsLifestyle & Contemporary Culture Award, Recipe Book of the Year
Website
Ladies, a plate

Alexa Johnston is an author, art curator, and historian from New Zealand.

Contents

Background

Johnston attended Northcote College. She studied Art History at the University of Auckland. [1]

Career

Johnston worked for nineteen years as a curator at the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki. [2]

Following the 2002 exhibition, 'Sir Edmund Hillary: Everest and Beyond', which she curated for Auckland Museum, Johnston published her first book, Sir Edmund Hillary: An Extraordinary Life. [2] [3] The book was translated into German by Ursula Pesch and Hans Freundl. [4] Johnston collaborated with David Larsen to write Reaching the Summit, biography of Edmund Hillary for young adults. [5]

Johnston has published a number of books celebrating New Zealand's culinary history including Ladies, a Plate (2008), A Second Helping (2009), What's For Pudding? (2011), and Ladies, a Plate: Jams and Preserves (2016). [2]

In 2016, Johnston edited and revised the Edmonds Cookery Book for its 69th De Luxe edition. [6]

Awards

Sir Edmund Hillary: An Extraordinary Life received the non-fiction honour award in the 2008 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. [7]

The first book in her cookery series, Ladies, a Plate, won the Lifestyle & Contemporary Culture Award at the 2009 Montana New Zealand Book Awards. [7] It also won the Publishers' Association of New Zealand Award for Best Illustrated Book and was Recipe Book of the Year in the New Zealand Guild of Food Writers Culinary Quill Awards. [2]

Johnston's books have also won design awards, including Best Cover in the 2006 Spectrum Book Design Awards for Sir Edmund Hillary: An Extraordinary Life [8] and Nielsen Award for Best Book for Ladies, A Plate at the 2009 PANZ Book Design Awards. [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edmund Hillary</span> New Zealand mountaineer (1919–2008)

Sir Edmund Percival Hillary was a New Zealand mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropist. On 29 May 1953, Hillary and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers confirmed to have reached the summit of Mount Everest. They were part of the ninth British expedition to Everest, led by John Hunt. From 1985 to 1988 he served as New Zealand's High Commissioner to India and Bangladesh and concurrently as Ambassador to Nepal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Himalayan Trust</span>

The Himalayan Trust is an international non-profit humanitarian organisation first established in the 1960s by Sir Edmund Hillary, who led the trust until his death in 2008. The Himalayan Trust aims to improve the health, education and general wellbeing of people living in the Solukhumbu District. The Himalayan Trust is headquartered in New Zealand where it is a registered charity through the Charities Commission. The Trust has charitable and donee status being a member of the Council for International Development (CID).

The Ockham New Zealand Book Awards are literary awards presented annually in New Zealand. The awards began in 1996 as the merger of two literary awards events: the New Zealand Book Awards, which ran from 1976 to 1995, and the Goodman Fielder Wattie Book Awards, which ran from 1968 to 1995.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Auckland War Memorial Museum</span> Museum and war memorial in New Zealand

The Auckland War Memorial Museum, Tāmaki Paenga Hira or Auckland Museum is one of New Zealand's most important museums and war memorials. Its neoclassical building constructed in the 1920s and 1950s, stands on Observatory Hill, the remains of a dormant volcano, in the Auckland Domain, near Auckland CBD. Museum collections concentrate on New Zealand history, natural history, and military history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Harvey (mayor)</span>

Sir Robert Anster Harvey is a former New Zealand advertising executive and politician. He is best known for his time as mayor of Waitakere City, which he held for 18 years from 1992 to 2010, and was also president of the New Zealand Labour Party in 1999 and 2000.

Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate is a school in Ōtara, Auckland, New Zealand. The school was formed in 2004, when Hillary College, Bairds Intermediate School and Clydemore Primary School joined together. There are three distinct schools on the one campus, which was opened by Sir Edmund Hillary, after whom it is named, in 2004. Hillary College opened in 1966 and was named Otara College until 1969.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Hillary</span> New Zealand mountain climber

Peter Edmund Hillary is a New Zealand mountaineer, philanthropist, and writer. He is the son of adventurer Sir Edmund Hillary, who, along with mountaineer Tenzing Norgay, completed the first successful ascent of Mount Everest. When Peter Hillary summited Everest in 1990, he and his father were the first father/son duo to achieve the feat. Hillary has achieved two summits of Everest, an 84-day trek across Antarctica to the South Pole, and an expedition guiding astronaut Neil Armstrong to land a small aircraft at the North Pole. He has climbed many of the world's major peaks, and on 19 June 2008, completed the Seven Summits, reaching the top of the highest mountains on all seven continents, when he summited Denali in Alaska.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Ussher</span>

Philippa Jane Ussher is one of New Zealand's foremost documentary and portrait photographers. She joined the New Zealand Listener in 1977 and was chief photographer for 29 years, leaving to take up a career as a freelance photographer and author.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Zealand five-dollar note</span> Current denomination of New Zealand currency

The New Zealand five-dollar note is a New Zealand banknote. It is issued by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and since 1999 has been a polymer banknote. It was first issued on 10 July 1967 when New Zealand decimalised its currency, changing from the New Zealand pound to the New Zealand dollar. The note originally had an image of Queen Elizabeth II on the front; since 1992 it has had an image of Sir Edmund Hillary. The new design released in October 2015 was named "Banknote of the Year" by the International Bank Note Society for 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kunal Kapur</span> Indian celebrity chef and restaurateur (born 1979)

Kunal Kapur is an Indian chef and restaurateur known for hosting and judging MasterChef India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tayla Alexander</span> New Zealand singer

Tayla Alexander is a New Zealand singer who has been hailed as an up-and-coming opera star by New Zealand media. Tayla's debut album Songbird charted in the top 10 on both the Independent Music New Zealand Album charts (IMNZ), and the New Zealand Music Charts, making her the youngest artist to appear on the New Zealand music charts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sir Edmund Hillary Mountain Legacy Medal</span> Award

The Sir Edmund Hillary Mountain Legacy Medal is awarded every one or two years to an individual "for remarkable service in the conservation of culture and nature in mountainous regions." The medal both recognizes the service of Sir Edmund Hillary on behalf of mountain people and their environment and also encourages the continuing emulation of his example. The Hillary Medal is a project of Mountain Legacy, a Nepalese non-governmental organization ; the president is biologist Kumar P. Mainali. The Hillary Medal was personally authorized by Sir Edmund in 2002, and ratified by the Namche Consensus, the declaration resulting from the 2003 Namche Conference: "People, Park, and Mountain Ecotourism."

Jill Trevelyan is a New Zealand art curator, reviewer, and author who specialises in 20th century New Zealand art. Her publications include the collected letters of New Zealand painter Toss Woollaston and a biography of New Zealand art dealer Peter McLeavey, which won the Book of the Year award in the New Zealand Post Book Awards in 2014.

Julie Le Clerc is a New Zealand food writer, chef, caterer, restaurateur and a presenter on TV food shows.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peta Mathias</span> New Zealand food writer

Peta Christine Mathias is a New Zealand food writer and television show presenter and owns a television production company that produces food and travel shows. She is also known for leading gastronomic tours in the south of France, Morocco, Spain and India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Selina Tusitala Marsh</span> New Zealand poet-scholar

Selina Tusitala Marsh is a New Zealand poet, academic and illustrator, and was the New Zealand Poet Laureate for 2017–2019.

Courtney Sina Meredith is a poet, playwright, and short story author from New Zealand.

Sue Reidy is a New Zealand author and designer.

Justin Paton is a New Zealand writer, art critic and curator, currently based in Sydney, Australia. His book How to Look at a Painting (2005) was adapted into a 12-episode television series by TVNZ in 2011.

<i>Mophead</i> 2019 graphic memoir by Selina Marsh

Mophead: How Your Difference Makes a Difference is a memoir in graphic novel form, written and illustrated by the poet and academic Selina Tusitala Marsh. It is published by Auckland University Press. On 12 November 2020 Mophead Tu: The Queen's Poem was published.

References

  1. "Alexa Johnston". Auckland Libraries. 28 January 2016. Archived from the original on 28 January 2016. Retrieved 26 November 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Alexa Johnston". Penguin New Zealand. Retrieved 26 November 2017.
  3. Johnston, Alexa (2005). Sir Edmund Hillary: An Extraordinary Life. Penguin. ISBN   9780670045549.
  4. Johnston, Alexa (2013). Sir Edmund Hillary: Die Biografie. Translated by Pesch, Ursula; Freundl, Hans. NG Taschenbuch. ISBN   9783492404709.
  5. "Reaching the Summit: Sir Edmund Hillary's Story by Alexa Johnston". Penguin New Zealand. Retrieved 26 November 2017.
  6. Steenhart, Josie (28 September 2016). "Iconic Edmonds cookbook given mouthwatering makeover". Stuff. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
  7. 1 2 "Past Winners by Author". New Zealand Book Awards Trust. Retrieved 26 November 2017.
  8. "Spectrum Book Design Awards 2006 winners". Publishers Association of New Zealand Inc. 11 October 2007. Retrieved 26 November 2017.
  9. "2009 PANZ Book Design Awards". PANZ Book Design Awards. 27 October 2012. Retrieved 26 November 2017.