S1, E24 - Arnie Johnston and Deborah Percy

Five Author Questions (5AQ)

Married writers Deborah Ann Percy (Johnston) and Arnold Johnston live in Kalamazoo and South Haven, MI. Their individually and collaboratively written plays have won over 300 productions and readings on stage, screen, and radio, as well as numerous awards and publications across the country and internationally; and they’ve written, co-written, edited, or translated some twenty books. Their award-winning poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and translations have appeared widely in literary journals and anthologies.
Debby’s two collections of short fiction are Cool Front: Stories from Lake Michigan (March Street Press, 2010) and Invisible Traffic (One Wet Shoe Press, 2014). Her latest projects are a fiction collection, Stepping Off into Space, and two short novels, A Second Opinion and So She Said. Arnie’s books include two novels, Swept Away (Atmosphere Press, 2021) and The Witching Voice: A Novel from the Life of Robert Burns (Wings Press, 2009); three collections of poems, Where We’re Going, Where We’ve Been (FutureCycle Press, 2020), Sonnets: Signs and Portents (Finishing Line Press, 2014), and What the Earth Taught Us (March Street Press, 1996). His translations of Jacques Brel’s songs have appeared in numerous musical revues nationwide, and are also featured on his CD, Jacques Brel: I’m Here!
Arnie and Debby’s collaborations include their new children’s book, Mr. Robert Monkey Returns to New York (Brandylane Publishers, 2021); plays, It’s About Us! (Eldridge Publishing Company, 2019), Radiation: A Month of Sun-Days (HP Publishing, 2016), Rumpelstiltskin: The True Hero (Eldridge, 2013), Beyond Sex, (HP Publishing, 2011), Rasputin in New York (Editura HP, 1999), Duets: Love is Strange (March Street Press, 2008); and an edited anthology The Art of the One-Act (New Issues Press, 2007).
After a distinguished administrative career in the Kalamazoo Public Schools, Debby is now a full-time writer, as is Arnie, who was chairman of the English Department (1997-2007) at Western Michigan University, and taught there for many years as co-founder of the creative writing program and founder of the playwriting program. They are members of the Dramatists Guild, the Associated Writing Programs, Poets & Writers, and the American Literary Translators Association.
Visit them at their website.
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