Lauren Kay Johnson grew up in a military family in the Seattle area. She went on to serve as an Air Force public affairs officer and award-winning Department of Defense journalist, deploying to the Republic of Mali and Afghanistan. After receiving an honorable discharge, Lauren earned an MFA in Creative Writing at Emerson College in Boston.
In March 2023, Lauren published her debut book, The Fine Art of Camouflage (MilSpeak Books), which chronicles her coming-of-age against the backdrop of war—beginning with her mother’s Army career and deployment in support of Operation Desert Storm when Lauren was seven years old, and later with her own service in Afghanistan.
Lauren’s essays, fiction, and poetry have appeared in The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Boston Globe Magazine, Glamour, Yale Medicine Magazine, CONSEQUENCE magazine, Drunken Boat, Pleiades, and several anthologies. Her writing and interviews have been used in the creation of dance and theater productions, and she has lectured at schools, conferences, and veteran centers across the country, including the Association of Writers and Writing Programs national conference, the Boston Book Festival, and the University of Iowa. She is a writing consultant with GrubStreet, an editor at Wrath-Bearing Tree, and a former editor-in-chief of Redivider.
Lauren lives with her family outside Seattle. By day, she works for IGNITE Worldwide, a non-profit that aims to combat the gender imbalance in STEM fields. By night, she writes (with the help of her fat tabby cat) and eats copious amounts of ice cream.
