Johnson creates a wide canvas for her characters and there’s both reverberating vulnerability and bravery to be found in each story. The world is a tilted and unsafe place in Johnson's stories — whether in the form of racism's violence or the environmental unravelling of the life we thought we could have; Johnson’s characters all seek out home as a place and an internal state.

Jocelyn Nicole Johnson’s writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Guernica, The Guardian, Phoebe, Prime Number Magazine, Kweli, Joyland, and elsewhere. Her short story “Control Negro” was anthologized in Best American Short Stories 2018, guest edited by Roxane Gay, and read live by LeVar Burton as part of PRI’s Selected Shorts series. Johnson has been a fellow at Hedgebrook, Tin House Summer Workshops, and VCCA. A veteran public school art teacher, Johnson lives and writes in Charlottesville, Virginia.