Rachael Heather Johnson

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Rachael Heather Johnson is an androgynous-gender-fluid, disabled Diné writer/poet from the Navajo Nation, who currently lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She belongs to the Red Running into the Water people and is born for the Towering House people. She lives with chronic pain, bipolar disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Her prose and poetry have been published in The Diné Reader: An Anthology of Navajo Literature, Anti-Heroin Chic, Wordgathering, Writers Resist, Poetry Northwest, and Prairie Schooner. Her essay, "Nowhere Place," won Prairie Schooner's 2017 Summer Creative Nonfiction Contest, a Glenna Luschei Award, and was recognized as a 2018 Notable Essay by Best American Essays. Her poem, "Elegy for Shida'i', My Uncle," was a runner-up for Poetry Northwest's 2021 James Welch Prize. She is currently writing a memoir, a novel, and a poetry chapbook collection.

Prize anthology mentions

Best American Essays 2019*

* indicates notable/special mention

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