wayne johnson

Author of
The Red Canoe (Agora Books, 2022)
On the Observation Car (Submarine Press, 2014)
Baseball Diaries: Confessions of a Cold War Youth (Submarine Press, 2012)
Live to Ride (Harmony, 2010)
White Heat (Harmony, 2007)
The Devil You Know (Harmony, 2004)
Six Crooked Highways (Harmony, 2000)
Don’t Think Twice (Harmony, 1999)
Deluge (Harmony, 1997)
The Snake Game (Knopf, 1990)

Wayne Johnson is the author of nine critically-acclaimed novels. Among Johnson’s public accolades have been a listing as a London Times bestseller, three Pulitzer nominations, New York Times Notable Book citations, inclusion in the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Series, recognition as a Minnesota Book Award Finalist, recognition as a Great Lakes Book Association Finalist, and a Kansas City Star Book of the Year citation.

Johnson has garnered excellent reviews (in addition to those from NYT) from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, The Washington Post, ALA, Booklist, Forbes, The Chicago Tribune, and other journals. He has been a Chesterfield Writers’ Film Project Fellow in Hollywood and has received recognition from the Sundance Film Festival for his screenplays.

His first non-fiction title, White Heat: the Extreme Skiing Life, was published by Atria in December 2007 and sold 10,000 copies in the first month. Live to Ride, a non-fiction work on motorcycles, was published in hardback by Simon & Schuster, June 2010, and in paperback 2011 to broad critical acclaim.

Of mixed Native and European descent, Johnson grew up on the south side of Minneapolis, and in the north lakes region of Minnesota on the White Earth and Red Lake Reservations. Johnson studied microbiology at the University of Minnesota before discovering the pleasures of hang gliding near Bozeman, Montana, where he finished his undergraduate degrees in English and Philosophy. A Teaching-Writing Fellow of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a former Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford, Johnson lives and skis in Utah, where he does emergency outdoor medical rescue for the Park City Ski Patrol.  He is a long-time faculty member of the Iowa Summer Writing Festival in Iowa City.

Facebook / WayneJohnsonauthor.com / Represented by Madison Smartt Bell

The Red Canoe (Agora Books, forthcoming)

The story of a boatbuilder living on the border of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community reservation. While on the brink of suicide, he meets a local teen hiding a terrible secret from her policeman father. On the foundation of their shared Ojibwe heritage, they build a friendship while uncovering just how deep her secret goes.

On the Observation Car (Submarine Press, 2014)

From New York Times Notable Book and Pulitzer Prize nominated author Wayne Johnson comes On the Observation Car, a brilliant new collection of stories—comedic, surprising, and delightful. From a portrait of a colorfully ingenious boy who, after being abandoned by his mother, finds himself in a strange and dangerous new world, to a searing examination of the effects of what once was called “racial prejudice” in “Eighty Acres,” these stories grip the imagination with a rare and powerful clarity. Originally published in Ploughshares, New Letters, Glimmer Train, and elsewhere, these award-winning stories are about the issues that are essential to us all: how we find the courage to live; how we acquire freedom, despite the costs; and how we love. All of Johnson’s stories, rendered through a sharp-eyed realism, take us into a world that touches the very heart of the human condition.

Baseball Diaries: Confessions of a Cold War Youth (Submarine Press, 2012)

It’s 1963 in suburban Minneapolis, when 7-year-old George (later Wayne) Johnson meets Artie, who lets George fly his dog. Thus begins a decade-long, on-and-off friendship and coming-of-age odyssey that will shape both boys’ futures and test their character, loyalty, humor, and wits.

This is not, however, the land of June and Ward Cleaver, and we are drawn into a parallel world unimagined by the boys’ mainstream parents and peers, a world sometimes hilarious (the “duel” between Artie’s dog and a casserole), sometimes nostalgic (balsa-wood model planes and Playboy centerfolds), occasionally perilous, and often illegal (setting off a stash of illicit fireworks deep inside the Minneapolis Convention Center).

On the surface there is little-league and scouting, romance and school, hobbies and jobs. But hidden from the adult world are the life-endangering stunts, the relentless torment of a pathological bully leading George to develop a series of home-made (and increasingly dangerous) defensive weapons, and the fleeting moral disdain for marijuana which soon gives way to an entrepreneurial and connoisseurial obsession when the plant is found growing in abundance nearby.

In turns tender, humorous, hair-raising and heartwarming, Baseball Diaries is a bitter-sweet and fascinating look at a pivotal time in a young man’s life and a magical time in America when baseball seemed simple and pure.

Live to Ride (Harmony, 2010)

Live to Ride is pure adrenaline! A full-throttle exploration of motorcyles that pushes to the limit, with heart-pounding accounts of riding the greatest bikes of all time, all over the world. Wayne Johnson, a lifelong motorcycle-lover and acclaimed writer, takes us around the globe and onto the terrain where the most extreme, thrilling forms of riding happen.

Johnson shows where it all began more than a hundred years ago, and lands us on the track today with some of the world’s highest-paid athletes— professional motorcycle road racers. Johnson also offers an inside look at the legendarily secretive culture of biker clubs with firsthand accounts of his own wild rides with an outlaw club. Hold on tight for this irresistible, one-of-a-kind journey into motorcycling.

White Heat (Harmony, 2007)

White Heat is pure adrenaline -- a thrilling exploration of extreme skiing that pushes the reader over the edge with heart-pounding accounts of people who risk their lives on the fastest, steepest slopes.

Often obsessed and possibly crazy, extreme skiers and snowboarders are having the time of their lives facing death-defying challenges. But the extreme skiing life isn't just about the quest to finish first; it's a lifestyle made up of insane jumps, bone-breaking speeds, and world records -- not to mention the wild off-mountain social world, the flamboyant gear and slang completely unique to it, and, of course, the remarkable history of the racing champions and events that is its backdrop.

Wayne Johnson, former competitive skier and acclaimed novelist, takes us into the cult of extreme skiing populated by stars such as one-eyed jumping champion Jerry Martin, who held the North American distance record for more than a decade, and Vinko Bogataj, whose world-famous wipeout on ABC's Wide World of Sports gave rise to the expression "pulling a Vinko." Here are real-life adventures, everything from Shane McConkey ski BASE jumping the Eiger in Switzerland to Shawn White, the Flying Tomato, throwing 1260s in the halfpipe. Johnson, who has spent a lifetime on the mountains, also puts you in his boots when recounting goose-bump- inducing tales of high-speed downhill racing, Nordic jumping competitions, avalanche control, and the hip, ripping world of snowboarding.

If you've ever wondered what kind of nut would willingly choose to fly off a twenty-story ski jump, or have ever dreamed of living outside the usual boundaries, or just like to read about people having life-expanding adventures, then White Heat is an exhilarating thrill ride that will leave you breathless.

The Devil You Know (Harmony, 2004)

When Max Geist plans a rugged canoe trip on the rivers of Northern Minnesota, fifteen-year-old David fears that dealing with his father--an opinionated, stubborn, novice outdoorsman--will be the roughest part of their journey. Little does he know that once he enters the unforgiving wilderness his life, and that of his family, will be irrevocably changed.

At the start of their trip, David's father and younger sister, Janie, briefly cross paths with a group of men who, unbeknownst to the Geist family, are on the lam. Fearing the family may have learned too much about them, the outlaws decide to track down the unknown man and his daughter and, if need be, silence them. When they find the family's campsite, David is away; he returns to find his father in a life-or-death struggle with one man and his sister being savagely attacked by another. David, extraordinarily strong for his age, saves Max and Janie's lives and, in the process, kills a man. But the second man escapes, and David knows he has a partner . . . and that it is only a matter of time before they come back to finish the job they started.

The outlaws become the only predators to fear in the wild as the Geist family is hunted down like animals--and uninjured David is the family's only hope for survival. As they tread through the snow-covered rocky terrain in search of safety, what began as a family bonding trip becomes a test of David's mental and physical limits, a journey into manhood and the responsibilities that come with it.

The Devil You Know combines the breathtaking intensity of a first-rate literary thriller with the complexity and poignancy of a classic coming-of-age novel. This is a spellbinding suspense novel with heart and soul, a story that will keep you riveted until the very last page.

Six Crooked Highways (Harmony, 2000)

Six Crooked Highways continues the series that began with his critically acclaimed novel Don't Think Twice -- of which the New York Times said, "Johnson's sentences shimmer, dip, swoop, and stretch. He has a fine eye."

Paul Two Persons runs a resort on the Red Lake reservation in Minnesota's dense lakeland region. When a years-old plan to run a highway through the reservation re-emerges, Paul yet again shoulders the responsibility of protecting his property. Slowly, the plan gains a sinister urgency, turning up two dead bodies and a small rabblement of characters who may prove to be Paul's only saviors, or who may end up destroying him and everything he loves.

Forcing an outward stoicism that belies the high stakes at hand, he pushes forward to unravel an overarching plot that extends beyond the boundaries of reservation politics. A murdered state cop, development plans mapped in indigenous code, and a missing boy who witnesses too much are all linked by a crucial piece of evidence: an Indian fetish accidentally dropped by a mysterious man who is involved in the scheme. The implications that this lost fetish carries reach beyond the scope of Paul's understanding: it will either reveal the identity of the criminal mastermind, or cripple the very foundations of Paul's land and its people.

With both deadpan humor and breathtaking prose, Wayne Johnson brilliantly weaves a story of power gone wrong, betrayal of one's people and culture, and an overriding sense of duty to protect what is sacred

Don’t Think Twice (Harmony, 1999)

Deep in the magnificent landscape of northwest Minnesota, near the Chippewa reservation where he grew up, Paul Two Persons owns a resort lodge on fourteen thousand acres of pristine forests and lakes. Haunted by the death of his young son and his disintegrating relationship with his beautiful wife, Paul is on the verge of losing the land he loves due to an unpaid loan to his childhood friend Al.

When he is called on to identify Al's body at the morgue, he knows his troubles have just begun. Not only are shady developers eyeing his property with escalating delight, but his best friend is putting moves on his mourning wife, and he's getting the dizzying sense that these occurrences are related to his son's death and Al's "suicide."

It's not just the fire that damages half the lodge or the potshots that somebody takes at him on a dark night; it's the left boot missing from Al's body and the Chippewa burial markings misplaced on his dead friend's flesh. These oddities lead Paul into a staggering game of deceit and murder even as his family and friends go to great lengths to save him.

Wayne Johnson has crafted a complex novel propelled by the mysterious circumstances of a man's downfall and the pride and misfortunes of his people. This riveting literary thriller captures the soul of a people and the beauty of their land, while calculating the price of true friendship and the enduring power of love.

Deluge (Harmony, 1997)

Deluge is the story of three generations of a Native American family and the Ojibwe teachings and legends that define, animate, and give meaning to their lives. The narrator is Aja, storyteller, teacher, and survivor, whose life moves from a youth immersed in her Ojibwe heritage through her odyssey to a small Eastern college, to her journey back to her people. Her mesmerizing narrative weaves together mythic and present times as it brings to life not only one woman's path toward self-actualization but also the emotional complexities of several generations.

The novel opens with the unlikely, dramatic, and romantic story of the meeting and courtship of Aja's grandparents--Peke, an Ojibwe, and Isabel, a daughter of Swedish immigrants--whose stormy marriage presages the course of many of the relationships in the book. All must weather the deluges of the Ojibwe trickster Wenebojo, whose constant antics both baptize and devastate. Ultimately, Wenebojo's mischievousness leads Aja back to her homeland to take up the mantle of family storyteller, a legacy left to her by her grandfather.

The Snake Game (Knopf, 1990)

In the backwoods of northern Minnesota, Indians eke out a meagre living. This novel traces the childhood and early manhood of an outsider, and his relationship with the Indian community, whose society is in increasing disarray, but whose influence upon the young man's development is profound. A provocative, potent debut.