Eli Ahamed, Elisabeth Knight, Michael Gabbard Bret Anthony Johnston Eli Ahamed, Elisabeth Knight, Michael Gabbard

Background Johnston was born and raised in Corpus Christi, Texas Johnston is a graduate of Miami University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship and a 5 Under 35 honor from the National Book Foundation He teaches in the Bennington Writing Seminars and at Harvard University, where he is the Director of Creative Writing.

Works Bret Anthony Johnston is the author of the internationally best-selling novel Remember Me Like This, which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, and the winner of the 2015 McLaughlin-Esstman-Stearns Prize. Bret is also the author of  the award-winning Corpus Christi: Stories, which was named a Best Book of the Year by The Independent (London) and The Irish Times, and the editor of Naming the World and Other Exercises for the Creative Writer

Awards His awards include the Pushcart Prize, the Glasgow Prize for Emerging Writers, the Stephen Turner Award, the Cohen Prize, a James Michener Fellowship, the Kay Cattarulla Prize for short fiction, and many more.

Notable Quotes “Stories aren't about things. Stories are things. Stories aren't about actions. Stories are, unto themselves actions.” What he means by this is that he wants his stories to evoke the textures and details of the writers imagination “Maybe we’re afraid of what we want most—for our characters to outlive us—and maybe the possibility that the writer, not the reader, will get lost in the pages of a great book is, ultimately, too much for us to bear.”

Themes and Social Issues Themes Johnston addresses throughout his novels circulate around the ideas of the nature of love and forgiveness, the different values that are associated with skateboarding and college life, and experiences based off of grief and hope

Video This video is a called “Waiting For Lightning” a documentary film written by Bret and documented by Jacob Rosenberg and was directed in 2012. http://youtu.be/U6ydeYZuBu8

Links to info online http://bretanthonyjohnston.com http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/08/dont-write-what-you-know/308576/

Sources Johnston, Brett A. "Don't Write What You Know." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 2011. Web. 30 Mar. 2016. Johnston, Brett A. "Main Menu." Bret Anthony Johnston. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Mar. 2016. Johnston, Brett A. "Waiting For Lightning | Film 2012 | SXSW." YouTube. Jacob Rosenberg, 1 Feb. 2012. Web. 01 Apr. 2016.