Leah Johnson Books in Order

Leah Johnson grew up on the west side of Indianapolis, Indiana, where the city gives way quickly to cornfields and soybean fields. She calls herself an eternal Midwesterner and a lifelong Hoosier, and that sense of place shows up often in the worlds she builds.

She started writing as a kid, filling a spiral notebook with short stories in Mrs. Peacock’s fifth-grade class. The notebook came first. The writing habit stayed.

At Indiana University Bloomington, Johnson studied journalism alongside African American and African Diaspora Studies. Reporting taught her to pay attention to people, ask better questions, and notice the small details that make a scene feel lived in. She later earned an MFA in fiction writing from Sarah Lawrence College, where she had room to explore the kinds of stories she wanted to tell.

Her 2020 debut, You Should See Me in a Crown, introduced readers to Liz Lighty, a queer Black teen in Indiana who enters a prom queen race to win a college scholarship. It is a funny, tender high school romance with real pressure underneath it: money worries, class differences, family expectations, and the fear of being seen. The book became the first Reese’s Book Club YA pick and received a Stonewall Honor.

With Rise to the Sun, Johnson took readers to a music festival in Georgia. The novel follows Olivia and Toni, two girls carrying different kinds of heartbreak through one intense weekend. There is romance, friendship, grief, and a lot of music, but the heart of the book is about giving yourself permission to change course.

Johnson moved into middle grade fiction with Ellie Engle Saves Herself, the first Ellie Engle book. Ellie is a quiet comic-book fan whose ordinary life gets much less ordinary after an earthquake leaves her with a strange power. Its follow-up, Bree Boyd is a Legend, puts Ellie’s rule-loving best friend at the center after a storm gives Bree powers she never asked for.

Her stories often make space for young people who are trying to understand themselves while the people around them keep making assumptions. Johnson writes about queer joy, friendship, first love, family, ambition, and the awkward business of growing up. Her characters can be anxious, messy, funny, or unsure, but they are allowed to want good things for themselves.

She has also edited the middle grade anthology Black Girl Power and co-wrote the holiday YA romance There’s Always Next Year with George M. Johnson. That novel follows two cousins over a chaotic New Year’s Day as love, family, work, and their hometown all demand attention at once.

These days, Johnson’s work goes beyond the page. She founded Loudmouth Books in Indianapolis, an independent bookstore that highlights books by marginalized writers and supports challenged and banned books. It is a fitting extension of the work she does in fiction: making more room for young readers to find stories that feel possible.