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Bret Anthony Johnston

Biography

Bret Anthony Johnston

Bret Anthony Johnston is the internationally bestselling author of the novels WE BURN DAYLIGHT and REMEMBER ME LIKE THIS, and the multi-award-winning collection CORPUS CHRISTI: Stories. He also edited NAMING THE WORLD: and Other Exercises for Creative Writer, and he wrote the documentary film Waiting for Lightning, which was released in theaters around the world by Samuel Goldwyn Films.

Among his many honors are a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, the Glasgow Prize, and the Sunday Times Short Story Award, “the world’s richest and most prestigious prize for a single short story.” His work has been widely translated and appears in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Esquire, The Paris Review, The New York Times Magazine, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Best American Short Stories and elsewhere.

After selling his television to buy his first board almost 40 years ago, Bret has yet to outgrow skateboarding. After directing the creative writing program at Harvard University for over a decade, he is now the Director of the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin.

Bret Anthony Johnston

Books by Bret Anthony Johnston

Encounters with Unexpected Animals: Stories
by Bret Anthony Johnston - Fiction, Short Stories

ENCOUNTERS WITH UNEXPECTED ANIMALS takes readers deep into the heart of bestselling author Bret Anthony Johnston’s home state of Texas, where teenagers search for love, parents grasp at connections with their children, and animals --- real or imagined, familiar or unexpected --- are reminders of the mystery, danger and beauty of being alive. In “Caiman,” a father buys a baby alligator in hopes of keeping his family safe. In “Soldier of Fortune,” a teenage boy dog-sits for his neighbors after tragedy strikes, and his innocent snooping uncovers the family’s most guarded secret. And in the luminous “Half of What Atlee Rouse Knows About Horses,” an elderly man’s heart is laid bare with the raw and breathtaking power of wild horses.

We Burn Daylight
by Bret Anthony Johnston - Fiction

Waco, Texas, 1993. People from all walks of life have arrived to follow the Lamb’s gospel --- signing over savings and pensions, selling their homes and shedding marriages. They’ve come here to worship at the feet of a former landscaper turned prophet who is preparing for the End Times with a staggering cache of weapons. Jaye’s mother is one of his newest and most devout followers, though Jaye herself has suspicions about the Lamb’s methods --- and his motives. Roy is the youngest son of the local sheriff, a 14-year-old boy with a heart of gold and a nose for trouble who falls for Jaye without knowing of her mother’s attachment to the man who is currently making his father’s life hell. The two teenagers are drawn to each other immediately and completely, but their love may have dire consequences for their families.

Remember Me Like This
by Bret Anthony Johnston - Fiction

Since Justin Campbell's disappearance four years ago, his family has been stuck in the grooves of grief. They are unable to comfort themselves, let alone one another. Then the impossible happens: Justin has been found only miles away, completely okay. Though the reunion is a miracle, Justin’s homecoming exposes the deep rifts that have diminished his family, the wounds they all carry that may never fully heal.