Adam Johnson
Johnson in 2006
Born	(1967-07-12)July 12, 1967 (age 58) South Dakota, U.S.
Occupation	Author, lecturer
Education	Arizona State University, Tempe (BA) McNeese State University (MFA) Florida State University (PhD)
Genre	Fiction
Notable awards	Pulitzer Prize,National Book Award

Adam Johnson (born July 12, 1967) is an Americannovelist andshort story writer. He won thePulitzer Prize for his 2012 novel,The Orphan Master's Son, and theNational Book Award for his 2015 story collectionFortune Smiles. He is also a professor of English atStanford University with a focus oncreative writing.^[1]

Johnson was born inSouth Dakota and is an enrolled member of theCheyenne River Sioux Tribe.^[2] He was raised inTempe, Arizona and attendedMarcos de Niza High School.

Johnson earned a BA in Journalism fromArizona State University in 1992, though he studied principally with the fiction writerRon Carlson. He earned anMFA from the writing program atMcNeese State University in 1996, where he studied withRobert Olen Butler andJohn Wood. In 2001, he earned a PhD in English fromFlorida State University.Janet Burroway directed his dissertation.

Johnson is currently aSan Francisco writer and professor in creative writing^[3] atStanford University. He founded the Stanford Graphic Novel Project and was named "one of the nation's most influential and imaginative college professors" byPlayboy magazine^[4] and "one of the most impressive professors at Stanford" byBusiness Insider.^[5]

Johnson is the author of the novelThe Orphan Master's Son (2012), whichMichiko Kakutani, writing inThe New York Times, called, "a daring and remarkable novel, a novel that not only opens a frightening window on the mysterious kingdom ofNorth Korea, but one that also excavates the very meaning of love and sacrifice."^[6] Johnson's interest in the topic arose from his sensitivity to the language of propaganda, wherever it occurs.^[7]Johnson also wrote the short-story collectionsEmporium andFortune Smiles and the novelParasites Like Us, which won aCalifornia Book Award in 2003.^[8] His work has been published inEsquire,Harper's Magazine,Tin House, andThe Paris Review, as well asBest New American Voices andThe Best American Short Stories. Recently, his short story "George Orwell was a Friend of Mine" was published by 21st Editions inThe Janus Turn with photographs in platinum by George Tice.^[9]

Johnson's work focuses on characters at the edge of society for whom isolation and disconnection are nearly permanent conditions.Michiko Kakutani described the central theme running through his tales as "a melancholy melody of longing and loss: a Salingeresque sense of adolescent alienation and confusion, combined with an acute awareness of the randomness of life and the difficulty of making and sustaining connections."^[10]

According toDaniel Mendelsohn, writing forNew York magazine, "Johnson's oh-so-slightly futuristic flights of fancy, his vaguely Blade Runner–esque visions of a cluttered, anaerobic American culture, illustrate something very real, very current: the way we must embrace the unknown, take risks, in order to give flavor and meaning to life."^[11] A strain of absurdity also runs through his work, causing it to be described as "a funky new science fiction that was part irony and part pure dread."^[12] "Teen Sniper" is about young sniper prodigy enlisted by the Palo Alto police department to suppress the disgruntled workers ofSilicon Valley. "The Canadanaut" follows a remote team of Canadian weapons developers who race to beat the Russians to the moon.

• 1992 Swarthout Writing Award^[13]
• 2001 Kingsbury Fellowship^[14]
• 1999-2001Stegner Fellowship^[15]
• 2002Amazon.com Debut Writer of the Year^[16]
• 2002New York Public Library Young Lions Award, nominee^[17]
• 2003Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers series^[16]
• 2005 Scholarship fromBread Loaf^[18]
• 2005 Scholarship fromSewanee writers' conferences^[18]
• 2009Whiting Award^[19]
• 2010National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship^[20]
• 2010Gina Berriault Literary Award.^[21]
• 2013Pulitzer Prize for Fiction forThe Orphan Master's Son^[22]
• 2013Dayton Literary Peace Prize forThe Orphan Master's Son.^[23]
• 2014Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award for "Nirvana".^[24]
• 2015National Book Award for Fiction forFortune Smiles^[25][26]
• 2016Story Prize forFortune Smiles^[27]

Novels

• Parasites Like Us (2003)
• The Orphan Master's Son (2012)

Short story collections

• Emporium (2002)
• Fortune Smiles (2015)^[28]
• "George Orwell was a Friend of Mine" in 21st Editions'The Janus Turn (2015)

Story publications

• "Interesting Facts" inHarper's Magazine
• "Hurricanes Anonymous" inTin House
• "The Denti-Vision Satellite" inNinth Letter
• "Cliff Gods of Acapulco" inEsquire
• "The History of Cancer" inHayden's Ferry Review
• "Watertables" inThe Missouri Review
• "The Canadanaut" inThe Paris Review
• "Your Own Backyard" inThe Southeast Review
• "The Death-Dealing Cassini Satellite" inNew England Review
• "Teen Sniper" inHarper's Magazine
• "Trauma Plate" inThe Virginia Quarterly Review andThe Barcelona Review
• "Nirvana" inThe Sunday Times Magazine
• "Dear Leader Dreams of Sushi" inGQ
• "The Third Mate" inGranta 116: Ten Years Later (Summer 2011)
• "Scavengers" inGranta 127: Japan (Spring 2014)

• Stanford profile
• Audio of "Trial of the Century"
• 2012 radio interview at The Bat Segundo Show

• 1967 births
• Living people
• 21st-century American novelists
• Arizona State University alumni
• Florida State University alumni
• McNeese State University alumni
• Novelists from San Francisco
• Stanford University Department of English faculty
• Novelists from Arizona
• Novelists from South Dakota
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winners
• American male novelists
• American male short story writers
• National Book Award winners
• 21st-century American short story writers
• 21st-century American male writers
• Cheyenne River Sioux people
• Lakota male writers
• Lakota writers
• Native American novelists

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