{{distinguish|Toby Johnson (American football)}} {{Multiple issues| {{BLP sources|date=July 2021}} {{COI|date=July 2021}} }}{{Short description|American novelist and writer in the field of gay spirituality}} {{infobox writer |name=Toby Johnson |birth_date={{birth year and age|1945}} |birth_place=San Antonio, Texas, U.S. |occupation={{flatlist| *Novelist *writer }} |alma_mater=California Institute of Asian Studies |genre=Gay spirituality |website={{url|http://www.tobyjohnson.com}} }} '''Toby Johnson''' (born 1945 in San Antonio, Texas) is an American novelist and writer in the field of gay spirituality.
== Life == After leaving seminary in 1970, Johnson moved to San Francisco and lived in the Bay Area throughout the 1970s. While a student at the California Institute of Asian Studies (later renamed the California Institute of Integral Studies), from which he received a graduate degree in Comparative Religion and a doctorate in Counseling Psychology, Johnson was on staff at the Mann Ranch Seminars, a Jungian-oriented summer retreat program. There he befriended religion scholar Joseph Campbell.<ref name=laweekly>{{cite web|last=McDonald|first=Patrick Range|title=Queer Town L.A. Gay Pride 2012: Author Toby Johnson Answers 'What Does It Mean to Be Gay?'|url=http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2012/06/la_gay_pride_2012_author_toby.php|work=LA Weekly|accessdate=16 January 2013|date=Jun 7, 2012}}</ref>
Johnson authored three novels: ''Plague: A Novel About Healing'', ''Secret Matter'', and ''Getting Life in Perspective''. ''Plague'', produced by small gay-interest publisher Alyson Publications, was one of the first novels to treat AIDS through fiction.<ref>{{cite book|last=Byrne|first=Joseph Patrick|title=Encyclopedia of Pestilence, Pandemics, and Plagues: A-M|year=2008|publisher=ABC-CLIO|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5Pvi-ksuKFIC&pg=PA14 |page=14|isbn=9780313341021}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Shaw|first=Marvin|title=Spirit, Psyche, Self|journal=Advocate|date=2 Feb 1988|issue=491|pages=54}}</ref> ''Secret Matter'', a speculative, romantic comedy about truth-telling and gay identity featuring a retelling of the Genesis myth with a gay-positive outcome, won a Lambda Literary Award in 1990 and in 1999 was a nominee to the Gay Lesbian Science-Fiction Hall of Fame, the first year of the award. He collaborated with historian, anthropologist Walter L. Williams on the novel ''Two Spirits: A Story of Life With the Navajo''. And co-edited, with Steve Berman, publisher of Lethe Press, an anthology of gay-positive stories, ''Charmed Lives: Gay Spirit in Storytelling''.
He is also author of ''Gay Spirituality: The Role of Gay Identity in the Transformation of Human Consciousness''<ref>{{cite web|title=Gay Spirituality: The Role of Gay Identity in the Transformation of Human Consciousness (review)|url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-55583-523-1|work=Publishers Weekly|accessdate=16 January 2013}}</ref> and ''Gay Perspective: Things Our Homosexuality Tells Us about the Nature of God and the Universe'', which explains how homosexuality can lead to a re-evaluation of people's role in the universe.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Plessas|first=Peter J|title=Gay Perspective by Toby Johnson (Review)|journal=Ashé Journal|date=Fall 2004|volume=3|issue=3|url=http://ashejournal.com/index.php?id=246}}</ref>
From 1996 to 2003, Johnson was editor/publisher of ''White Crane Journal'', a periodical focusing on gay men's spirituality. As of 2012, he worked as a literary editor with Lethe Press.<ref name=laweekly/>
His papers are held at the Happy Foundation, San Antonio, Texas.<ref>{{cite web|title=Lavender Legacies Guide: United States: Texas|url=http://www2.archivists.org/groups/lesbian-and-gay-archives-roundtable-lagar/lavender-legacies-guide-united-states-texas|work=Lesbian and Gay Archives Roundtable|publisher=Society of American Archivists|accessdate=16 January 2013}}</ref>
==Bibliography==
*''Gay Perspective: Things Our Homosexuality Tells Us about the Nature of God and the Universe'' Peregrine Ventures, 2003, {{ISBN|978-1727348446}} *''Gay Spirituality: The Role of Gay Identity in the Transformation of Human Consciousness'' Peregrine Ventures, 2000, 2010, {{ISBN|9781727318975}} *''Secret Matter''. Peregrine Ventures, 2005, {{ISBN|9781727179422}} . This is a science fiction novel, set in San Francisco. *''Getting Life in Perspective'' Peregrine Ventures 1991, 2010, {{ISBN|9781727097023}} *''Plague: A Novel about Healing'' Alyson Books, 1987, 9781555831257, Republished as "The Fourth Quill" by Peregrine Ventures, 2014 {{ISBN|9781727066920}} *''Two Spirits: A Story of Life With the Navajo'' (With Walter L. Williams, PhD) Peregrine Ventures, 2006, {{ISBN|9781088961063}} *''The Myth of the Great Secret: A Search for Spiritual Meaning in the Face of Emptiness'' William Morrow and Company, 1981, {{ISBN|9780688007812}} *''The Myth of the Great Secret (2nd Edition): An Appreciation of Joseph Campbell'' Celestial Arts, 1991, {{ISBN|9780890876589}} *''In Search of God in the Sexual Underworld'' William Morrow and Company, 1983, 9780688020460 *''Finding Your Own True Myth: What I Learned from Joseph Campbell: The Myth of the Great Secret III'' Peregrine Ventures, 2018, {{ISBN|9781546521075}} *''Finding God in the Sexual Underworld: The Journey Expanded'' Peregrine Ventures, 2020, {{ISBN|9798558467628}}
==As editor==
*''Charmed Lives: Gay Spirit in Storytelling'' (co-edited with Steve Berman) (2006). The inaugural title in the White Crane Wisdom Series, this anthology of inspirational essays and short fiction for gay men earned Johnson a Lambda Literary Award nomination.
==See also== * LGBT rights in Texas
==References== {{Reflist}}
== External links == * [http://www.tobyjohnson.com/ Official Website Toby Johnson]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Toby}} Category:21st-century American novelists Category:American gay writers Category:1945 births Category:Living people Category:Lambda Literary Award winners Category:American spiritual writers Category:American LGBTQ novelists Category:LGBTQ people from Texas Category:American male novelists Category:21st-century American male writers Category:21st-century American non-fiction writers Category:American male non-fiction writers