Maureen Johnson (born February 16, 1973) is an American author of young adult fiction. Her published novels include series leading titles such as 13 Little Blue Envelopes, The Name of the Star, Truly Devious, and Suite Scarlett. Among Johnson's works are collaborative efforts such as Let It Snow, a holiday romance novel of interwoven stories co-written with John Green and Lauren Myracle, and a series of novellas found in New York Timesbestselling anthologies The Bane Chronicles, Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy, and Ghosts of the Shadow Market.
Johnson was born in Philadelphia and attended an all-girl Catholic preparatory high school. She graduated from the University of Delaware in 1995 with a degree in English.[1] Johnson later worked variously as literary manager of a Philadelphia theater company, a waitress in a theme restaurant, a secretary, a bartender in Piccadilly, and an occasional performer in New York City. She studied both writing and theatrical dramaturgy at Columbia University, where she received her MFA in Writing.[2]
Literary career
Johnson, at right, along with fellow author Lauren Myracle at left while signing at the LA Times Festival of Books in 2012.
Johnson's debut novel The Key to the Golden Firebird was published in May 2004 by HarperTeen. The Key to the Golden Firebird entered the market during a resurgence of popular interest in the young adult fiction genre.[3] In 2005, it received starred reviews from both School Library Journal and Booklist.
Johnson's second published novel, The Bermudez Triangle (later reissued as On the Count of Three in 2013), was released in October 2004. It was selected as a Winter 2004 Book Sense Pick, as well as listed for New York Public Library's “Books for the Teen Age 2006”, and the American Library Association’s Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults, LGBTQ list.
In August 2005, 13 Little Blue Envelopes was published by HarperTeen. Johnson herself has said she considers Ginny's adventure to be "a little bit of a fairy tale," and has cited the song "Charmed Life" by Irish artist Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy for its likeness to the spirit with which the novel was written.[4][5] The second novel, The Last Little Blue Envelope, was later published in April 2011.[6]
Devilish, Johnson's fourth novel, was published in September 2006. Marking Johnson's first full departure from contemporary realistic fiction, Devilish was shortlisted in 2007 for the Andre Norton Award, which is for YAscience fiction and fantasy novel writing.[7]
Johnson's sixth novel and the beginning of her second series, Suite Scarlett, was published in May 2008. Suite Scarlett was selected by the American Library Association for their list Best Books for Young Adults 2009, and received a starred review by Booklist.[citation needed]
On November 27, 2009, Johnson first became a New York Times bestselling author when Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances (October 2008, Speak) reached number ten on the Children's Paperback list.[8] A holiday romance novel of interwoven stories co-written with John Green and Lauren Myracle, Let It Snow begins with Johnson's "The Jubilee Express". The film is out now, with distribution by Netflix in a November 2019 release.
The Name of the Star, Johnson's tenth novel, was published in September 2011. The first of four titles set within the Shades of London series. In 2012, The Name of the Star was nominated for an Edgar Award in the category of young adult fiction.[9] The second and third Shades novels, The Madness Underneath and The Shadow Cabinet, were published in February 2013 and February 2015, respectively.
Meanwhile in 2011, Johnson became the ongoing lead coordinator of LeakyCon's Lit Track programming, the literary focused experience for fans of young adult fiction more broadly, a production of Mischief Management. Topics of the Lit Track have included the importance of supporting diversity within young adult literature, the experience of writing romance fiction that respects teenaged characters, use of critical thinking in examining the labels we ascribe to particular kinds of fiction, and panels discussing the stories that authors of popular fiction first wrote for themselves in their teenage years.[10]
In March 2014, Johnson was selected to represent the YA category for World Book Day in the United Kingdom[11] with the first publication of her novellaThe Boy in the Smoke, a prequel story to the Shades of London series.[12] That August, The Boy in the Smoke was additionally released to an international audience for free through the online reading and story writing platform Wattpad.[13]
In November 2014, The Bane Chronicles, an anthology of novellas has appeared on the New York Times bestsellers list for children's series a number of times, beginning the week of July 7, 2013. In November 2016, Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy, an anthology of novellas, is described as providing an epilogue to Clare's Mortal Instruments series.
How I Resist: Activism and Hope for a New Generation (Wednesday Books, 2018) is a collection of essays, songs, illustrations, and interviews on the topics of activism and hope, with all author proceeds donated to support the ACLU.[14]
Truly Devious (Katherine Tegen Books, 2018) is the first in a trilogy of mystery novels to follow Stevie Bell, the second novel, The Vanishing Stair, was published January 2019 and the third and concluding novel of the trilogy, The Hand on the Wall, was published January 2020.[15] A fourth novel, and the series' first standalone title, The Box in the Woods was released in June 2021. A fifth novel, and again a standalone title, Nine Liars was released in December 2022.
Social media presence, advocacy, and activism
Johnson has maintained a personal website about her work and experiences as an author since 2005, with blog entries dating as far back as August of that year. In June 2008, she joined then new micro-blogging platform Twitter as one of its early users, where she has likened her many posts about everything from the news of the day to searching the town of Guildford for a baking pan[16] to the habit she had developed of leaving post-it notes around for others to read while working in theater productions.[17]
Book banning
In June 2007, the parent of a student in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, challenged The Bermudez Triangle's presence within the school. The parent went on record saying "I didn’t appreciate that it was there", referring to the book being in the library. "I just don’t think homosexual materials belong in our schools."[18] While book challenges in the U.S. are not uncommon,[19] Johnson's response upon learning of the issue was to quickly publish a blog post on her website calling for greater transparency in the school system's challenge process.[20] In an attempt to resolve the controversy, the school board did not remove the book but instead placed it in a restricted area of the high school's library.[21] In an interview in January 2008 in retrospect of the situation, Johnson expressed the primary concern that censorship of stories on the basis of a character's identity will adversely effect all children, particularly those who happen to share that given identity. On the school's copy of The Bermudez Triangle ultimately being placed in a restricted area, Johnson stated: "To do so is basically saying to the gay kids, 'There’s something dirty about you.' Anyone who would say that is the true filthmonger."[22]
Other creative projects
VlogBrothers
In January 2010, Johnson was acknowledged as John Green's secret sister on the popular YouTube channel VlogBrothers. With the reveal of this honorary title, Johnson took on the role of creating videos for the channel during his absence to paternity leave. Johnson later reprised the duty after the birth of Green's second child in 2013.
Welcome to Night Vale
Since June 2014, Johnson has voiced the character Intern Maureen on the surreal fiction podcast Welcome to Night Vale, as well as occasionally performed the character live on stage. In June 2016, while in conversation at 92Y in New York, co-creator Joseph Fink explained that the character of Intern Maureen was initially written in the image of Johnson, but quickly killed off, as death is a kind of tradition for most interns of the Night Vale Radio station. Johnson, a vocal fan[23] of the podcast, in turn led a Twitter campaign in protest, leading Fink and Cranor to agree to bring the character back on the condition that Johnson perform the role herself. Intern Maureen's continued survival has since become an ongoing joke within the stories. Johnson provided the foreword for The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe (Harper Perennial, 2016), a collected volume of early podcast scripts.
Says Who? Podcast
Maureen Johnson co-hosts the Says Who? podcast with Dan Sinker. The podcast began in September 2016 as a coping strategy for the 2016 United States election. The original intention was to have a limited 8 episode season with various guests but have continued until the present day.[24] Fans of the podcast are known as "Sayswhovians."
Personal life
Johnson lives in New York City.[25] A self-described vegetarian since 1994, she has frequently shared her love for both vegan and vegetarian cooking through blog posts and tweets.[26] "I'm a vegetarian from Philadelphia, which means I spend my life trying to make a vegetarian steak sandwich."[27] According to a May 2023 Town Watch episode of Says Who?, shortly after moving to New York City, Johnson got a job as a server in the Jekyll & Hyde Club family of restaurants and pubs.
Brandon Winn Sanderson is an American author of high fantasy, science fiction, and young adult books. He is best known for the Cosmere fictional universe, in which most of his fantasy novels, most notably the Mistborn series and The Stormlight Archive, are set. Outside of the Cosmere, he has written several young adult and juvenile series including The Reckoners, the Skyward series, and the Alcatraz series. He is also known for finishing Robert Jordan's high fantasy series The Wheel of Time. Sanderson has created several graphic novel fantasy series, including White Sand and Dark One.
Michele Sharon Jaffe is an American writer. She has authored novels in several genres, including historical romance, suspense thrillers, and novels for young adults.
Scott Carl Sigler is an American author of science fiction and horror and a podcaster. Scott is a New York Times No. 1 bestselling author of nineteen novels, seven novellas, dozens of short stories, and thousands of podcast episodes. He is a co-founder of Empty Set Entertainment, which publishes his young adult Galactic Football League series. He lives in San Diego.
Martha Elizabeth "Libba" Bray is an American writer of young adult novels including the Gemma Doyle Trilogy, Going Bovine, and The Diviners.
Lauren Myracle is an American writer of young adult fiction. She has written many novels, including the three best-selling "IM" books, ttyl, ttfn and l8r, g8r. Her book Thirteen Plus One was released May 4, 2010.
Ally Carter is the pen name of Sarah Leigh Fogleman, an American author of young adult fiction and adult-fiction novels.
The Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction is an annual award presented by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) to the author of the best young adult or middle grade science fiction or fantasy book published in the United States in the preceding year. It is named to honor prolific science fiction and fantasy author Andre Norton (1912–2005), and it was established by then SFWA president Catherine Asaro and the SFWA Young Adult Fiction committee and announced on February 20, 2005. Any published young adult or middle grade science fiction or fantasy novel is eligible for the prize, including graphic novels. There is no limit on word count. The award was originally not a Nebula Award, despite being presented along with them and following the same rules for nominations and voting, but in 2019 SFWA announced that the award was considered a Nebula category.
Cathy Cassidy is an English author of young adult fiction. She was born in Coventry, Warwickshire. For a number of years she lived near New Galloway in Scotland where she started writing her novels, but has since returned to England, where she now lives on The Wirral. She has written 30 books and a few e-books as well. She has also been the agony aunt for Shout, a magazine for teenage girls, and she presently has a series of four books about Daizy Star for younger readers and a series of books for older readers called the Chocolate Box Girls.
Brent Weeks is an American fantasy writer. His debut novel, The Way of Shadows, was a New York Times best seller in April 2009. Each of the five books in his Lightbringer series made the NYT list as well, starting with The Black Prism in 2010. He lives and works near Portland, Oregon with his wife, Kristi, and their two daughters.
Wattpad is a website for reading and publishing original written fiction and connecting with fellow writers and readers. Its most popular genres are romance, teen fiction, and fan fiction. As of November 2021, Wattpad has more than 90 million monthly users and there are over 665 million story uploads in total.
The Nebula Awards annually recognize the best works of science fiction or fantasy published in the United States. The awards are organized and awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA), a nonprofit association of professional science fiction and fantasy writers. They were first given in 1966 at a ceremony created for the awards, and are given in four categories for different lengths of literary works. A fifth category for film and television episode scripts was given 1974–78 and 2000–09, and a sixth category for game writing was begun in 2018. In 2019 SFWA announced that two awards that were previously run under the same rules but not considered Nebula awards—the Andre Norton Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction and the Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation—were to be considered official Nebula awards. The rules governing the Nebula Awards have changed several times during the awards' history, most recently in 2010. The SFWA Nebula Conference, at which the awards are announced and presented, is held each spring in the United States. Locations vary from year to year.
Penelope Fletcher is a British writer of paranormal romance and young-adult fantasy fiction. She was born in London and lives in the United Kingdom with her fiancé. Her books have been published digitally as eBooks on Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, and Apple iBooks. She writes erotic fiction under pen name Hanna Lui.
Jessica Marie FreyFRY is a Canadian science fiction and fantasy author. While she is best known for her debut novel Triptych, Frey's work encompasses poetry, academic and magazine articles, screenplays, and short stories. Frey calls herself a "professional geek".
Shine is a 2011 young adult mystery novel by Lauren Myracle. The book was published on May 1, 2011, and follows a teenage girl investigating a hate crime involving the beating and near-death of her best friend in a small, North Carolina town. Shine won the 2012 Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award and is on the ALA's "YALSA Reader’s Choice" and "Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults" lists for 2012.
Beth Revis is an American author of fantasy and science fiction, mainly for the young adult audience. She is best known for the Across the Universe trilogy, which consists of the novels Across the Universe, A Million Suns and Shades of Earth. Revis resides in North Carolina.
Alaya Dawn Johnson is an American writer of speculative fiction.
Margaret Colleen Hoover is an American author who writes primarily novels in the romance and young adult fiction genres. She is best known for her 2016 romance novel, It Ends with Us. Many of her works were self-published, before they were picked up by a publishing house. As of October 2022, Hoover has sold approximately 20 million books. She was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2023.
Anna Renee Todd is an American author, film producer, and screenwriter. She is best known for writing the book series After, which she started publishing on the social storytelling platform Wattpad. The print edition of the series was published by Gallery Books, and has been translated into several languages.
Suyi Davies Okungbowa is a Nigerian fantasy, science fiction and speculative writer and academic. His debut novel, David Mogo, Godhunter was published in July 2019.
Truly Devious is a young adult mystery novel written by Maureen Johnson. The novel was published on January 16, 2018, and it is the first in a series of three novels: Truly Devious (2018), The Vanishing Stair (2019), The Hand on the Wall (2020), and the following standalone novels: The Box in the Woods (2021), Nine Liars (2022). The books are published by HarperCollins.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
