George M. Johnson

George M. Johnson grew up in Waterdown, Ontario, and in 1991 moved to Kamloops, B.C., where he enjoys canoeing, camping, and cross-country skiing. He has written award-winning plays and screenplays, as well as books, such as Mourning and Mysticism in First World War Literature: Grappling With Ghosts. His picture books, How Hope Became An Activist, Marisa and the Mountains, and Sophia’s Secrets, have all received acclaim. Sophia’s Secrets won the Pacific Northwest Writers’ Association Children’s Story competition. He teaches creative writing and modern literature, as does his wife and sometime collaborator, Nina, at Thompson Rivers University. He tests all of his stories on their two kids, who somehow have become teenagers. George believes in the power of literature to create empathy. Most of his work reflects his long-time advocacy of social justice, for which he received the YMCA Peace Medal in 2019.