Sarah Johnson
Johnson, Sarah (1967 - ) was born in Hamilton, where she grew up and attended Fairfield College. After high school, she moved to Wellington in order to attend Victoria University. She spent time travelling around the UK and Europe, before returning to Victoria University to complete her Bachelor of Laws with Honours. She graduated in 1991. Between the years of 1991 and 1994, she worked as a barrister and solicitor in Hamilton. In 1994, she moved to the UK. During her time there, she worked in a variety of roles, including strawberry picker, cabbage hoer, fuchsia grower, solicitor and legal researcher.
In 1999, Johnson earned an MPhil in Publishing at Stirling University in Scotland. She lived in Stirling for two more years working as a technical writer and editor, editing two published works for Endat Publishing, National Parks Europe and Walk Europe, both published in 2000. In 2001, she moved back to New Zealand and worked in various publishing and communications roles, switching to freelance work in 2003. Since then she has been running a freelance writing and editing business from Raglan, Waikato, with clients from both New Zealand and overseas.
Johnson started writing for children and in 2004, her junior fiction book Ella and Ob was shortlisted for the Tom Fitzgibbon Award. In 2008, Ella and Ob was published through Scholastic NZ.
Johnson was involved in working on Change in Mind: Kia Puawai a Mua: A history of the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand: Thirty years on from Telethon 1977 for the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand, which was published in 2008. In 2012, she published Wooden Arms with Scholastic NZ. Wooden Arms was released both in English and te reo Māori, with the title Poupou Tauawhi. Wooden Arms/Poupou Tauawhi won the Storylines Joy Cowley award in 2011. Radio Southland called it “A delightful story which encompasses the settlement of New Zealand, from the Māori and European to immigrants and then cities and more people from other countries who come to make a life in this country.”
In 2015, Johnson published The Bold Ship Phenomenal with Flat Bed Press. On her website, she says, “This story is very special to me. It's about pirates and snails and a pig and boats and trucks and trees, but it's also about some of the things I think are really important in life.” The Bold Ship Phenomenal was shortlisted in 2013 for the Kobo/NZ Authors E-Publishing Prize, and in 2016 for the New Zealand Children’s Book Awards, junior fiction category. It received a Storylines Notable Book Award in 2016.
The Spaghetti Giraffe was published through Flat Bed Press in 2017, it earned Johnson, and illustrator Deborah Hinde, her second Storyline Notable Book Award in 2018. The Spaghetti Giraffe and the Egg of Courage was published in 2019 through Flat Bed Press.
In 2022, Johnson wrote Harold's Spots, a children's book illustrated by Deborah Hinde, for the Waipa–King Country Life Education Trust.
Johnson also writes for the School Journal and children’s books and stories for educational publishers, often for publication overseas and translated into different languages.
LINKS
Sarah's Website
Sarah’s Facebook
Sarah’s blog
