Krista Victoria Johansen

Background

Krista Victoria Johansen was born on May 19, 1968, in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, to Peter H. Johansen, a professor of biology, and Noreen (Bateman) Johansen.

Education

Krista studied English and history at Mount Allison University, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in 1990. In 1991, she attended the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto where she received a Master of Arts in 1992. She also attended McMaster University and received another Master of Arts in English in 1994.

Career

Johansen has been inventing stories from an early age. She told stories to her younger siblings and wrote her first book at the age of eleven. Her writing career began with the Torrie Quest series. In that series, readers follow the adventures of Torrie in a magical world called Erythroth. Johansen is also known for a series of illustrated children’s books called The Pippin and Mabel series. The stories in this series contain life lessons for children. The Warlocks of Talverdin is yet another series from Johansen, but this one is written for young adults.

Johansen has also written the Cassandra Virus series. This series is not set in the fantasy world of the Warlocks of Talverdin series but has high tech elements as well as secret agencies and spies. Johansen has also written short stories for adults, namely the Storyteller and Other Tales and The Serpent Bride.

Achievements

• Krista V. Johansen received a New Brunswick Lieutenant-Governor's Early Childhood Literacy Award (now known as the Dr. Marilyn Trenholme Counsell Early Childhood Literacy Award) in 2000. The Torrie Quest series has earned Johansen several awards and award nominations, including a nomination of Torrie and the Pirate Queen for the Silver Birch Award (2006) and Diamond Willow Award (2006). Torrie and the Pirate Queen was also the recipient of the Canadian Authors’ Association's Lilla Stirling Award in 2006. Torrie and the Fire Bird was selected as one of the top ten children’s books of 2006 by the Ontario Library Association. Nightwalker, the first book of The Warlocks of Talverdin series, won the 2008 Ann Connor Brimer Award as well as was shortlisted for the 2008/09 Snow Willow Award. Her publication Blackdog, a fantasy novel that is aimed at an adult audience, was shortlisted for the 2012 Sunburst Award.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Pippin and the Bones

    (When Pippin the dog discovers prehistoric bones deep in t...)

    2000
  • Warden of Greyrock

    (Maurey, the half human, half Nightwalker Warden of Greyro...)

    2009
  • Pippin and Pudding

    (When Pippin finds a little gray kitten to play with in th...)

    2001
  • Nightwalker

    (After his guardian dies, Maurey is reduced from student t...)

    2007
  • Quests and Kingdoms

    (Fantasy has become an increasingly popular genre of child...)

    2005
  • Blackdog

    (In a land where gods walk on the hills and goddesses rise...)

    2011
  • Pippin Takes a Bath

    (Pippin the dog and her master Mabel have a basic disagree...)

    1999
  • The Lady

    (Possessed by a ghost who feeds on death, the undying assa...)

    2014
  • The Cassandra Virus

    (In the not-too-distant future, Jordan creates a powerful ...)

    2006
  • Gods of Nabban

    (The fugitive slave Ghu has ended the assassin Ahjvar's ce...)

    2016
  • The Leopard

    (Ahjvar, the assassin known as the Leopard, wants only to ...)

    2014
  • Torrie and the Firebird

    (The irrepressible Old Thing who narrated Torrie and the P...)

    2006
  • Torrie and the Pirate Queen

    (One day, while surveying the docks of a fishing village, ...)

    2005
  • The Shadow Road

    (In Book Four of the popular Warlocks of Talverdin series,...)

    2010
  • The Storyteller and Other Tales

    (The Storyteller and Other Tales will take you on a journe...)

    2008
  • Treason in Eswy

    (Years have passed since the conclusion of the prequel to ...)

    2008
  • The Black Box

    (Something is cutting off Spohrville's communication with ...)

    2011
  • Torrie and the Dragonslayers

    (Cossypha's father, a reclusive sorcerer, seems to have go...)

    1997
  • The Serpent Bride

    (In The Serpent Bride, K.V. Johansen weaves a haunting web...)

    1998
  • The Drone War

    (It's the future. Jordan O'Blenis may be a genius when it ...)

    2007
  • Torrie & the Snake-Prince 2007

Views

Johansen claims that her greatest influence is Tolkien, attributing to him her fascination with language and her understanding of what makes a coherent narrative.

Membership

Johansen belongs to the Writers’ Union of Canada, The Tolkien Society, and the Early English Text Society.

Personality

Krista is fond of gardening, she likes growing exotic trees indoors. She has a dog, Pippin, the title character of her Pippin picture book series. Her favorite book is J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, which she rereads every year. Johansen’s other interests include ancient and Medieval history, dead languages, natural history, and the history of children’s fantasy literature. She is also a fan of anime and manga.

Interests

• gardening

• Writers

  J.R.R. Tolkien

Connections

Krista Victoria is married to Chris Paul, a Web site designer.

Father:

Peter H. Johansen

Mother:

Noreen (Bateman) Johansen

husband:

Chris Paul

References

• Contemporary Authors New Revision Series: A Bio-Bibliographical Guide to Current Writers in Fiction, General Non-Fiction, Poetry, Journalism, Drama, Motion Pictures, Television, and Other Fields In response to the escalating need for up-to-date information on writers, Contemporary Authors New Revision Series brings researchers the most recent data on the worlds most-popular authors.
  2010