Vicki Johnson

VICKI JOHNSON is a children’s book author, and a former band nerd, White House staffer, and nonprofit director. Her debut picture book is Molly’s Tuxedo, illustrated by Gillian Reid and based on her experiences growing up. It was released June 27, 2023 from Little Bee Books and GLAAD.

Vicki was a 2022 Lambda Literary Fellow, a 2020 PBChat Mentee, and a 2020 Finalist for the We Need Diverse Books MG Mentorship Program. She received a 2023 artist grant from the WV Department of Arts, Culture and History, and the National Endowment for the Arts, with approval by the WV Commission on the Arts. She is an active member of SCBWI and was a Sue Alexander Most Promising New Work Award nominee.

Vicki started Cabin Reads in 2016 as an in-person author series, and recently ran a year-long Instagram project featuring a diverse group of kid-lit and comics authors, illustrators, booksellers, and librarians who shared about nature and their creative process.

A first-generation graduate of Smith College and Emory University School of Law, she is currently pursuing her MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults at Vermont College of Fine Arts, and has received her Picture Book Intensive certificate.

Vicki was born and raised in rural Georgia and spent her childhood reading, listening to Casey Kasem’s Top 40, and sweating. Now she’s a lesbian mom and single parent of a college student. Her empty nest is an historic log cabin in West Virginia where she caters to the whims of five rescued animals.