Michelle Johnston
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eleytherius.bsky.social
Michelle Johnston
@eleytherius.bsky.social
790 followers 620 following 48 posts
Artisanal mess-creator, writer of novels, life-long student of bewilderment, doctor in the trenches. Carnie in a past life, probably. Has trouble writing bios.
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Reposted by Michelle Johnston
thebooksdesk.bsky.social
I would reach for the word "masterpiece" too! "Powerful, intelligent and beautifully written, it’s likely to attain future status as a culturally-resonant literary classic. @eleytherius.bsky.social reviewed over @artshub.bsky.social www.artshub.com.au/news/reviews...
The Revisionists review: Michelle Johnston's third novel is a masterpiece
Michelle Johnston's The Revisionists, is a powerful book about the complex responsibilities of journalism.
www.artshub.com.au
July 25, 2025 at 6:42 AM
eleytherius.bsky.social
Mad thrilled to have The Revisionists as Apple's 'What To Read This Month' book. Want a story about love and war and Dagestan and bad decisions and money and the malleability of memory? You could do worse :-)
apple.co/WhatToReadThisMonth apple.co/new-release-...
July 7, 2025 at 7:53 AM
eleytherius.bsky.social
Book lovers, friends, countrypeeps, if anybody was out and about on these dates and wanted to come and talk The Revisionists and all things bookish - writing, war (!), bad decisions, New York, Dagestan, language, memory - I would LOVE to see you at one of these events! Come say hello!
June 23, 2025 at 7:48 AM
Reposted by Michelle Johnston
squigglyrick.bsky.social
I'm teaching an intimate, online creative writing class through Varuna from 22 July. It's all about writing with humour and heart, the two great threads of life. It's not about being a comedian but having a zest for the incongruous. Apps close tomorrow! www.varuna.com.au/for-writers/...
Writing with Heart and Humour with Rick Morton — Varuna, The National Writers' House
Applications close 18 June This eight-session masterclass for writers in any genre will develop your skills in positioning yourself as an observer, and bringing nuance and humour to the story you wo...
www.varuna.com.au
June 17, 2025 at 7:20 AM
eleytherius.bsky.social
No Kings, except for this one - King of the bins, screeching out at his subjects, opening his massive birdy bowels over all his lands.
June 15, 2025 at 7:28 AM
Reposted by Michelle Johnston
thebooksdesk.bsky.social
One for your calendars: two shining stars of the OZ literary firmament are sharing the stage! Namely Angela O'Keeffe is interviewing @eleytherius.bsky.social regarding her (stunning!) new novel at Kinokuniya on July 17 events.humanitix.com/an-evening-w...
An Evening with Michelle Johnston | The Revisionists
Join us for an evening with Michelle Johnston as she discusses her new book, 'The Revisionists'.
events.humanitix.com
June 6, 2025 at 6:28 AM
eleytherius.bsky.social
Sweet bluesky. Coming into blossom on this election night. Realtime, old twitter-feel rant and roar and right up-to-datedness.
May 3, 2025 at 10:19 AM
Reposted by Michelle Johnston
mykafuiohkafui.bsky.social
It’s so important to not let yourself become bitter or disheartened or cynical. To not let the news of the world break your spirit. Because I’m already doing that. It’s my thing. Find your own, stop copying me.
April 29, 2025 at 11:43 AM
Reposted by Michelle Johnston
thebooksdesk.bsky.social
So great to see @eleytherius.bsky.social’s #TheRevisionists as one of the key titles from OZ for this week’s #LBF25 www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/202...
March 8, 2025 at 3:45 PM
eleytherius.bsky.social
which crazy cat came up with the ESR? oh yeah, how about how fast your blood falls means how sick you are? like a party trick for illness
February 14, 2025 at 11:44 PM
eleytherius.bsky.social
reading the news each morning with an 'is it cake?' vibe. Is it stupidity, or is it rank cruelty? Neither tastes any good, though.
February 14, 2025 at 11:39 PM
eleytherius.bsky.social
Seems a tad unusual to be displayed on the counter of the little old lady volly lolly shop, but who am I to judge?
February 14, 2025 at 8:15 AM
eleytherius.bsky.social
This all *she gestures around* seems like a very bad vaudeville. I don’t recall buying tickets for this.
February 8, 2025 at 9:37 AM
Reposted by Michelle Johnston
lifeisamazing.bsky.social
DEI is not about choosing someone who is worse at a job but from a minority, it's about ensuring people who are equally good or better qualified aren't overlooked because they're from a minority.
February 1, 2025 at 9:05 AM
eleytherius.bsky.social
There is always art. There is always love. *chants to self while hiding phone under a pillow*
February 1, 2025 at 2:52 AM
eleytherius.bsky.social
Syringes in the stairwell, police lining the corridors, resolutions becoming undone in the waiting room; it must be New Year’s Day in the emergency department.
December 31, 2024 at 11:42 PM
Reposted by Michelle Johnston
hadas.bsky.social
sorry about that, i asked it to make sense of my life choices
December 12, 2024 at 5:03 AM
eleytherius.bsky.social
Doing some research today and discovered the heart of a grasshopper is a tube as thick as a strand of spaghetti and my day is infinitely better
December 8, 2024 at 7:38 AM
Reposted by Michelle Johnston
broomedocs.bsky.social
If you work in a hospital outside the metro centres … this is the conference for you to learn some sick skills cos: critical illness doesn’t respect geography
@thesgem.bsky.social @eleytherius.bsky.social @first10em.bsky.social
broomedocs.bsky.social Casey Parker @broomedocs.bsky.social · Dec 3
Spring sessions inEM #SSEM will be a fun, #FOAMed filled event in 2025
December 4, 2024 at 12:21 AM
eleytherius.bsky.social
The super gorgeous Rochelle launching the Perth phase of her book Double Happiness. She is authentic, courageous and that little bit sassy. Thank you @thebooksdesk.bsky.social for the introduction of the thoroughbred in your stable.
November 25, 2024 at 12:18 PM
eleytherius.bsky.social
donning the hairnet and taking a place on the belt, having clocked on at the tragedy factory #emergencymedicine
November 20, 2024 at 12:10 PM
Reposted by Michelle Johnston
broomedocs.bsky.social
November 19, 2024 at 12:04 PM
Reposted by Michelle Johnston
causticcovercritic.bsky.social
I've always had a lot of time for Julian Barnes: even more so reading his manifesto for Barnes's Benign Republic...
(from his 'Changing My Mind', due next year from Notting Hill Editions)
The historian A. J. P. Taylor, applying for a fellowship at Oxford, was asked an anxious question by one of the dons interviewing him. He had heard that Mr Taylor regrettably suffered from a dubious condition known as Strong Opinions: was this the case? Yes, Taylor confirmed, he did indeed have Strong Opinions, but it was all right, because they were Weakly Held. (And he got the job.) Some of us have strong opinions weakly held, others weak opinions strongly held. I’ve always assumed that liberals like me have moderate opinions, moderately held. But I’m not sure that’s any longer the case. When asked my view on some public matter nowadays, I tend to reply, ‘Well, in Barnes’s Benign Republic . . .’. The other day a friend asked for details of the BBR’s main principles. For a start, I replied, public ownership of all forms of mass transport, and all forms of power supply – gas, electric, nuclear, wind, solar. Major reform of the House of Lords, which has weirdly engrossed itself into the second largest legislative body in the world, second only to the national congress of the Chinese Com munist Party; also, with its twenty-six bishops, the only chamber to have theological input apart from Iran (and if reform doesn’t work, then Abolition). A referendum on the future of the monarchy, which I would expect monarchists to win; but after that, and in any case, the institution would have to become self-funding and fully taxable, with absolute financial transparency (no more bags of cash for the King’s private charities) and no government support. Immediate application to rejoin the European Union; permission for Scotland to hold another independence referendum if they want to; encouragement for the island of Ireland to reunite. Massive investment in the National Health Service on both moral and economic grounds; the market to be completely removed from the NHS, and foreign health-care companies banned from buying up GP practices. Immediate unilateral nuclear disarmament, plus a dismantling of the arms industry; no export of arms would be permitted, and only the manufacture of those necessary for the country’s defence. Absolute commitment to carbon net zero sooner than other countries. A ban on any foreign country or institution or individual from owning any newspaper or television station, or any sporting institution, in the BBR. And yes, there’s more. Absolute separation of Church and State, and the laicisation of all education. Immediate abolition of the charitable status of public schools; then, in stage two, abolition of the schools themselves. A fifty-year ban on any Old Etonian from becoming Prime Minister; a twentyfive- year ban on one becoming a cabinet minister. A complete prohibition on foreign missionaries entering the country; and a ban on domestic missionaries travelling overseas. Responsibility for the prison services to be returned to the state. Immediate legalisation on assisted dying. Universal right to roam on public land, greater access to private land for walkers and ramblers. All major sporting events (as defined by me) will be returned to freeto- air TV channels and websites. Anonymity on social media will be banned: all contributors to be immediately identifiable, which might reduce the insane level of verbal violence, and make it easier to identify and prosecute criminal posters. Full restoration of all arts and humanities courses at schools and universities (every child must learn a minimum of one foreign language); and, more widely, an end to a purely utilitarian view of education. At least one of the royal palaces to be turned into a museum of the slave trade, with full explanations of its profitability and beneficiaries. Education (and re-education, and re-re-education) of young males to diminish violence against and coercion of women. Oh, and while we’re about it, I think we’d better just close down the Daily Mail, don’t you? Inevitably, such measures would be denounced by ‘those who know better’, who ‘understand the real world’ as unaffordable, untested, absurdly utopian, blindly socialistic, certain to cause a disastrous run on the pound, and so on. ‘Not even Liz Truss, whose seven-week premiership cost the country thirty billion pounds . . .’ op-ed columns might begin (if they didn’t prefer to ignore such blatant lunacy). Whereas I consider these proposals to be reasonable, gentle and quite possibly popular. ‘Ah, but the markets won’t stand for any of it . . . ’. No, they probably wouldn’t. But a spokesman for the BBR (me) will reply by quoting Charles de Gaulle. When he was president, a particular policy was put forward at his council of ministers. No, no, replied some of his more cautious and traditional advisors, we can’t possibly do that, it will cause a run on the Franc – the markets won’t stand for it. To which the General replied, with an hauteur appropriate to one of his height, ‘The policy of La France is not made on the trading floor of the Bourse.’
November 17, 2024 at 11:57 PM
eleytherius.bsky.social
Having an absolute follow-fest here. Hammering the follow button with abandon in the glorious knowledge this is not the malodorous sinkhole the other site has become. #WhatFun
November 14, 2024 at 8:41 AM
eleytherius.bsky.social
I scramble over to Blue Sky and immediately do a self-promotion post. Michelle! This is NOT TWITTER!
November 13, 2024 at 6:50 AM