https://www.laurencjohnson.com/events daily 0.75 2026-02-21 https://www.laurencjohnson.com/events/awp-2026-author-signing monthly 0.5 2026-02-21 https://www.laurencjohnson.com/events/happy-endings-show-period-piece monthly 0.5 2026-02-21 https://www.laurencjohnson.com/events/lit-laught-lyric monthly 0.5 2026-03-19 https://www.laurencjohnson.com/events/babylon-salon-spring-2026-performance monthly 0.5 2026-02-21 https://www.laurencjohnson.com/events/the-west-faade-book-launch monthly 0.5 2026-01-23 https://www.laurencjohnson.com/events/club-chicxulub-viii monthly 0.5 2025-11-29 https://www.laurencjohnson.com/events/stir-a-reading-series-at-cafe-suspiro monthly 0.5 2025-11-29 https://www.laurencjohnson.com/events/babylon-salon-fall-2025-performance monthly 0.5 2025-11-29 https://www.laurencjohnson.com/events/lit-crawl-femmes-thems-destroy-fairy-tales monthly 0.5 2025-11-28 https://www.laurencjohnson.com/events/poolside-poets-love-letters monthly 0.5 2025-11-28 https://www.laurencjohnson.com/events/babylon-salon monthly 0.5 2025-11-29 https://www.laurencjohnson.com/events/babylon-salon-presents-lit-crawl-24 monthly 0.5 2025-01-25 https://www.laurencjohnson.com/events/literary-speakeasy monthly 0.5 2025-01-25 https://www.laurencjohnson.com/events/s0nd0pp45n9dinbgdfu94dm08joyq7 monthly 0.5 2023-07-08 https://www.laurencjohnson.com/events/club-chicxulub-v monthly 0.5 2023-07-08 https://www.laurencjohnson.com/events/club-chicxulub-lit-crawl monthly 0.5 2023-07-08 https://www.laurencjohnson.com/events/the-racket-reading-series monthly 0.5 2023-01-26 https://www.laurencjohnson.com/events/club-chicxulub-3 monthly 0.5 2023-01-13 https://www.laurencjohnson.com/events/event-one-rfsjw monthly 0.5 2022-05-08 https://www.laurencjohnson.com/home daily 1.0 2026-03-19 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/608b8a795ae4750b8a3474a3/d7464c9d-fae5-42e5-813c-ef093d57c759/rachelzphotographyllc-5.jpeg Home https://www.laurencjohnson.com/about daily 0.75 2026-02-21 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/608b8a795ae4750b8a3474a3/0538de74-afb7-4740-819f-8756ba8f047b/rachelzphotographyllc-21.jpg About - Short Bio: Lauren C. Johnson attributes her upbringing in Florida, America’s weirdest state, to her interest in the ecological and surreal. Her writing has appeared in The Rumpus, Orion Magazine online, and others. She is the interviews editor for The Racket Journal and is a member of The Ruby, a Bay Area collective for women and non-binary artists and creatives. She earned her MFA in creative writing at American University and lives in San Francisco, where she is a co-host of Babylon Salon, a quarterly Bay Area reading series, and Club Chicxulub, a sci-fi and fantasy performance series. Her debut novel, The West Façade, is forthcoming from Santa Fe Writers Project (SFWP) in 2026. — Thank you for visiting my website! Growing up in Tampa, Florida, I watched as gated communities, Publix supermarkets, and the ever-expanding roads encroached upon the live oaks and palmettos. Witnessing negotiations between development and the natural world turned me into an environmentalist. I believe our relationship with the land informs each relationship in our lives. While Bed Bath & Beyond stores rise from the leveled earth, alligators sun themselves in our backyards. In a place like Hillsborough County, where sinkholes threaten houses, how much control over our environment can we really claim? I’m a proud alumna of Emerson College where I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in print journalism. Throughout my career, I’ve juggled writing fiction and creative nonfiction with my work in nonprofits, government, and tech. Prior to moving to San Francisco, I lived in Washington, D.C., Ecuador, and briefly Italy. For information on my work as a content writer and strategist, please visit laurencjo.com. In 2017, I earned an MFA in creative writing from American University, where I was a merit recipient. I regularly contributed to AU’s Cafe MFA and was a fiction reader for FOLIO. I participated in the summer creative writing program at John Cabot University in Rome. I’m an alumna of Lidia Yuknavitch’s The Body of the Book workshop through Corporeal Writing ‘23, Kenyon Review Online Writers Workshop ‘23, Tin House Summer ‘22 workshop, ZYZZYVA fiction workshop ‘19, Lit Camp ‘19, Breadloaf Environmental Writers’ Conference ‘18, and the Mendocino Coast Writers’ Conferences 2019-2022. I’m a co-host of Babylon Salon, one of San Francisco’s longest-running literary and performance series, and a co-founder of Club Chicxulub, a reading series featuring emerging speculative fiction authors accompanied by synthwave, dark wave, and ambient beats. I am a proud member of The Ruby, a collective for women and non-binary artists in the Bay Area. For a list of books I’m reading, follow me on bookshop.org. https://www.laurencjohnson.com/writing daily 0.75 2026-01-23 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/608b8a795ae4750b8a3474a3/4c79fada-b7d3-425e-9f87-966904f823fb/rachelzphotographyllc-156.jpg Writing - Publications 2025 Podcast reading: The Sunshine Skyway, A Small, Good Thing Podcast Essay: As My Dad Was Dying, A Tupperware I Found In My Parents’ Closet Brought Me the Most Unexpected Comfort, HuffPost Personal Essays Fiction: The Sunshine Skyway, The Sunlight Press Interview: Kate Folk, The Racket Journal Interview: Lauren Parker, The Racket Journal Interview: Tara Campbell, The Racket Journal 2024 Interview: Jordan Windholz, The Rumpus Interview: Charlie J. Stephens, Orion Magazine Interview: Mateo Askaripour, The Rumpus subscriber newsletter Interview: Elizabeth Geoghegan, The Racket 2023 Fiction: Hand-Built Heart, All Existing Literary Magazine Interview: Alejandro Varela, The Rumpus Fiction: Chimera, The Jarnal Volume 3: Transitions, Mason Jar Press Interview: Miah Jeffra, The Racket Journal Interview: Elizabeth Gonzalez James, The Racket Journal Interview: Josh Riedel, The Racket Journal 2022 Bay Area Authors share rituals that help close out the holiday season, Datebook Fiction: Cluck, Maudlin House Interview: Kathleen J. Woods, The Racket Journal Review: Chouette, The Racket Journal Interview: Kim Fu, The Racket Journal 2021 Fiction: Sandhill Crane, Swamp Ape Review Interview: Stephanie Grant, The Racket Journal Interview: Loie Rawding, The Critical Flame Interview: Tara Campbell, The Racket Journal Interview: Jenny Qi, The Racket Journal Interview: Paolo Bicchieri, The Racket Journal 2020 Nonfiction: Alligators, The Racket Journal Blue c/Hair: A Quarantine Zine in Partnership with Rockets are Red 2019 Poetry: Indiana, Pacifica Literary Review 2018 Fiction: Lopsided Heart, The Museum of Science Fiction Fiction: Sirens in the Gulf, Howl of the Wild, A Nature Anthology by Winterwolf Press 2017 Fiction: Carnival Glass, Oracle Fine Arts Review Nonfiction: Jelly Sandals, Diodata https://www.laurencjohnson.com/contact-me daily 0.75 2026-02-21 https://www.laurencjohnson.com/the-west-facade daily 0.75 2026-03-19 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/608b8a795ae4750b8a3474a3/32b8536a-5817-4715-8dbc-eb8129feb3ba/TWFCover.jpg https://www.laurencjohnson.com/press daily 0.75 2026-03-05 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/608b8a795ae4750b8a3474a3/5cb76416-ccb1-48fc-b98e-eab3ed508d77/AboutTWF.jpg