Alaya Dawn Johnson

Alaya Dawn Johnson (born 1982) is an American writer of speculative fiction.

Career Apart from short fiction, Johnson has published two urban fantasy novels about "vampire suffragette" Zephyr Hollis set in an alternate 1920s New York City, and two novels set on islands resembling pre-modern Polynesia where people have learned to bind elemental powers to their commands.

Her 2013 debut in the young adult fiction sector, the standalone novel The Summer Prince, is set on a post-apocalyptic cyberpunk Brazilian arcology ruled by a nanotech-empowered matriarchy. Love Is the Drug, her 2014 standalone young adult novel, is set in Washington, D.C., and follows a prep-school student whose memory loss may be connected to a burgeoning global influenza pandemic.

In February 2021 Johnson was the literary guest of honor and keynote speaker at the 39th annual Life, the Universe, & Everything professional science fiction and fantasy arts symposium.

Personal life Johnson was born in Washington, D.C.

Johnson lived in New York City She received a master's degree in Mesoamerican studies from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México for her thesis on fermented food and its ritual symbolism in pre-Columbian Mexico.

Awards and honors World Fantasy Awards Winner, Best Novel for Trouble the Saints, 2021 Andre Norton Award Winner, Best Young Adult Novel for Love Is the Drug, 2015 Nebula Award Winner, Best Novelette for A Guide to the Fruits of Hawai’i, 2015 Andre Norton Award Nominee for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy for The Summer Prince, 2013 GLBTRT Top Ten Rainbow List for The Summer Prince, 2014 Junior Library Guild selection for The Summer Prince, Spring 2013 YALSA nominee for their BFYA list for The Summer Prince, 2013