Kirk W. Johnson

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Kirk Wallace Johnson
Johnson in a gray sweater and crossing his arms.
Johnson at the American Academy in Berlin, Fall 2010.
BornWest Chicago, Illinois
OccupationAuthor
Alma materUniversity of Chicago (2002)
Genrenon-fiction
Notable worksThe List Project
SpouseMarie-Josée Cantin Johnson
Website
kirkwjohnson.com

Kirk Wallace Johnson is an American author, journalist, and founder of The List Project,[1] a not-for-profit organization that helps resettle Iraqi refugees who previously worked for the U.S. government during the Iraq War.[2][3][4] He served as the U.S. Agency for International Development regional coordinator for reconstruction in Fallujah, Iraq in 2005.[5][6][7]

Early life and education[edit]

Johnson was born in West Chicago, Illinois.[7] His father, Thomas L. Johnson, served several terms as a Republican State Representative and Senator, and his mother, Virginia L. Johnson, was a policy advisor to the Illinois Attorney General. As a fifteen-year-old, Johnson visited Egypt with his grandmother, and began studying Arabic in evening classes at the College of DuPage, skipping his high school graduation to attend the Arabic Language Institute at the American University in Cairo.

He graduated from the University of Chicago in 2002, with a degree in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. In addition to studying in Syria on a Foreign Language Acquisition Grant (2001), Johnson received a Fulbright Scholarship to conduct research on political Islamism in Egypt (2002–03).

The List Project[edit]

Johnson was opposed to the Iraq War, but felt an ethical obligation to help with the reconstruction efforts, which he supported as a way of righting a wrong. After returning from Iraq with PTSD,[8][9] he was contacted by his former Iraqi colleagues, who were running for their lives as a result of working for the U.S. Government during the war. In December 2006, he wrote an op-ed for the "Los Angeles Times" calling upon the government to open its doors to these allies. In response, he was flooded with petitions from thousands of refugees, leading him to found the List Project to Resettle Iraqi Allies,[10] a non-profit that marshaled hundreds of attorneys from the nations top law firms to represent their cases on a pro bono basis. Over the subsequent eight years, the List Project helped over 2,000 U.S.-affiliated Iraqis resettle to America. Johnson testified before Congress and worked closely with Senator Ted Kennedy toward the creation of the Special Immigrant Visa program, designated for Iraqis and Afghans that worked for the United States during the wars.

His work was profiled in 60 Minutes, the Today Show, The New Yorker, and This American Life; it was the subject of his 2013 memoir To Be a Friend Is Fatal: the Fight to Save the Iraqis America Left Behind.

Literary career[edit]

After returning from Iraq, Johnson began fly-fishing, which led him to the story that would become his true crime book, The Feather Thief.[11][12][13] The story is about how an American flutist, Edwin Rist stole remains of rare birds from the Natural History Museum in England.[14] Hobbyists pay high prices for the feathers of exotic birds, including fly-fishers, who use them to catch fish.[15] He learned of the heist when a guide from New Mexico told the story, leading to a five-year period of research and interviews, including with Rist.[16] The book will be adapted into a television series by Jenna Bush Hager's production company.[17][18] The film rights to The Fishermen and the Dragon has been sold to George Clooney's production company for a multi-part series.[19]

In 2023, The Fisherman and the Dragon won the Carr P. Collins Award for Best Book of Nonfiction.[20]

Fellowships[edit]

  • Senior Fellow at the USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy[21]
  • MacDowell Fellow, 2013
  • Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, Fall 2011
  • Bosch Public Policy Fellow, American Academy in Berlin, Fall 2010
  • Yaddo, 2007
  • Fulbright Scholar, Egypt,[22] 2002-3

Bibliography[edit]

  • To Be a Friend Is Fatal: The Fight to Save the Iraqis America Left Behind. Scribner. October 7, 2014. ISBN 9781476710495.[23]
  • The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century. Viking Books. 2018.[24]
  • The Fishermen and the Dragon. Viking Books. August 2, 2022. ISBN 9781984880123.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Félix, Doreen St. (June 20, 2018). "What We're Reading This Summer". The New Yorker. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  2. ^ Hammer, Joshua (June 1, 2018). "The Man Who Stole Bird Feathers". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 6, 2022.
  3. ^ Kistler, Florian; Gennies, Sidney; Schäuble, Julianne (August 18, 2021). "'Das ist ein Schlag ins Gesicht': Der Zorn der Afghanistan-Veteranen" ['This is a slap in the face': The anger of Afghanistan veterans]. Der Tagesspiegel (in German). Retrieved August 6, 2022.
  4. ^ Critics: U.S. Govt. Should Have Moved Faster to Get Afghan Allies Out (Television broadcast). CNN. August 16, 2021.
  5. ^ Tavernise, Sabrina; Worth, Robert F. (February 1, 2007). "Escaping Chaos in the Middle East: Few Iraqis Are Gaining US Sanctuary". Der Spiegel. ISSN 2195-1349. Retrieved August 6, 2022. ...Kirk W. Johnson, who worked for the United States Agency for International Development in Falluja in 2005.
  6. ^ Szoldra, Paul (June 26, 2014). "Some Of The Bravest People I've Ever Known Are Being Abandoned In Iraq And Afghanistan". Business Insider. Retrieved August 5, 2022. ...Kirk W. Johnson, a former reconstruction coordinator in Iraq, the founder of the List Project to Resettle Iraqi Allies, and the author of...
  7. ^ a b Al-Shawaf, Rayyan (September 13, 2013). "'To Be a Friend Is Fatal' by Kirk W. Johnson – The Boston Globe". Boston Globe. Retrieved August 5, 2022.
  8. ^ Paul, Ellen (March 28, 2018). "The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century". The Auk. 135 (2). doi:10.1642/AUK-18-8.1.
  9. ^ Kemp, Christopher (May 4, 2018). "Irreplaceable avian specimens, ransacked". Science. 360 (6388): 500. Bibcode:2018Sci...360..500K. doi:10.1126/science.aas9050. ISSN 0036-8075. S2CID 195010917. Retrieved August 6, 2022.
  10. ^ Long, Karen R. (November 7, 2013). "Author Kirk W. Johnson On The Fight To Help Iraqi Allies Left Behind". Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards. Retrieved August 6, 2022.
  11. ^ Lay, Jennie; Damerville, Alesha (June 10, 2019). "Meet Kirk Wallace Johnson, author of 'The Feather Thief'". Steamboat Magazine. Steamboat Springs. Retrieved August 6, 2022.
  12. ^ Ben-Asher, Julia (June 25, 2019). "Meet 'The Feather Thief' Author Kirk Wallace Johnson, True Crime Writer". Steamboat Pilot. Retrieved August 6, 2022.
  13. ^ "Book review: The Feather Thief, by Kirk Wallace Johnson". The Scotsman. May 10, 2018. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  14. ^ Nolan, Tom (April 20, 2018). "'The Feather Thief' Review: A Fuss Over Feathers". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  15. ^ Williamson, Jesse (April 25, 2018). "An Ornithologist Reads 'The Feather Thief'". Outside Online. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  16. ^ Gawrylewski, Andrea (May 1, 2018). "Debunking Animal Myths, the Truth about Time and Other New Science Books". Scientific American. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  17. ^ Petski, Denise (July 28, 2022). "Jenna Bush Hager Developing 'The Feather Thief' Series Adaptation With Universal International Studios". Deadline. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  18. ^ McCarty, India (August 2, 2022). "Jenna Bush Hager Has Exciting Career News Outside Of 'Today' Gig". Suggest. Quillt. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  19. ^ King, Rachel (June 26, 2022). "22 new books coming out during the second half of 2022". Lifestyle. Fortune. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  20. ^ "TEXAS INSTITUTE OF LETTERS ANNOUNCES WINNERS OF 2023 LITERARY AWARDS" (PDF). Texas Institute of Letters.
  21. ^ "Kirk Wallace Johnson – USC Communication Leadership". communicationleadership.usc.edu. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  22. ^ Johnson, Kirk (September 14, 2014). "We Abandoned Them: Kirk Johnson's Fight to Save Iraqis" (Interview). Interviewed by John Kael Weston. The Daily Beast. Retrieved August 5, 2022.
  23. ^ Kakutani, Michiko (August 20, 2014). "In Iraq, Dread Is in the Air". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 5, 2022. ...embodies the plight of many Iraqis described in Kirk W. Johnson's devastating 2013 book, 'To Be a Friend Is Fatal'...
  24. ^ Arreola, Cristina (August 8, 2018). "3 Nonfiction Books About Scams, Schemes, And Heists That Prove 'Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction'". Bustle. Retrieved August 6, 2022.

External links[edit]

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