Jessica Johns

Jessica Johns is a Cree writer from Canada, whose debut novel Bad Cree was published in 2023.

Early life and education

Johns is a member of the Sucker Creek First Nation in northern Alberta. She grew up on her traditional territory in Treaty 8. She lived in Adelaide, Australia, from ages 14 to 16. Johns majored in English at Grant MacEwan University and has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia.

Career

While she was an MFA student, a creative writing teacher told Johns' class to never write about dreams. Johns wrote Bad Cree in part as a response to this, advice which Johns disagreed with due to the importance of dreams in Cree culture. It was expanded from her earlier short story of the same name, which won the Journey Prize in 2020.

Bad Cree was published in 2023 by HarperCollins Canada. The novel won the MacEwan Book of the Year award, the Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction, the ALA Alex Award, and was a shortlisted finalist for the 2023 Amazon.ca First Novel Award. Bad Cree was selected for the 2024 edition of Canada Reads, where it was defended by Dallas Soonias.

Awards and honours

Personal life

Johns lives in Edmonton with her girlfriend and three cats.

Publications

• How Not to Spill. Rahila's Ghost Press. 2018. ISBN9781775116776.
• Donaldson, Emily (ed.). "The Bull of Cromdale". Best Canadian Essays 2019. Biblioasis.
• Jones, Amy; Lau, Doretta; Mutonji, Téa, eds. (2020). "Bad Cree". The Journey Prize Stories 32: The Best of Canada's New Writers. McClelland & Stewart. pp.67–78. ISBN9780771050992.
• Forget, André, ed. (2022). "Good Bones". After Realism: 24 Stories for the 21st Century. Vehicule Press. ISBN9781550655964.
• Bad Cree. Doubleday. 2023. ISBN9780385548694.