Toby Johnson

Toby Johnson, Ph.D. is a former Catholic monk and comparative religions scholar turned psychotherapist, gay activist, community organizer, bookseller, ’zine editor, B&B host and gay entrepreneur. He and Kip Dollar, partners since 1984, ran the lesbian/gay community bookstore in Austin for seven years and later two gay Bed & Breakfasts, first in the Rockies and then back in the Texas Hill Country. They were the first male couple registered as Domestic Partners in Texas in 1993. Johnson is now working with Lethe Press/White Crane Books as an editor and book designer.

Toby Johnson is author of numerous books. Five non-fiction titles present spiritual wisdom he learned from his mentor and friend, renowned religions scholar Joseph Campbell. Four gay genre novels, including Two Spirits: A Story of Life Among the Navajo (in collaboration with Walter L. Williams), are sweet adventure/romances woven through with wisdom and psychological insight. With Steve Berman, Johnson edited the Lammy-nominated anthology Charmed Lives: Gay Spirit in Storytelling.

Johnson’s Secret Matter won a Lammy Award for Gay Men’s Science Fiction and was later nominated, effectively as one of the five top gay sci-fi titles of all time, for the Gay and Lesbian Science Fiction Hall of Fame inauguration. His Gay Spirituality: The Role of Gay Identity in the Transformation of Human Consciousness won a Lambda Literary Award in the Religion and Spirituality category. This book Gay Perspective was originally released in 2003 and was nominated for a Lammy that year.

Toby Johnson has a webpage at www.tobyjohnson.com.