Narrative Nonfiction
Akemi Johnson is the author of NIGHT IN THE AMERICAN VILLAGE: Women in the Shadow of the U.S. Military Bases in Okinawa, which was shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing.
She is currently at work on a second narrative nonfiction book, to be published by One Signal/Simon & Schuster, about the WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans and Tule Lake concentration camp, where her grandfather renounced his U.S. citizenship, along with more than 5,000 others. The project was awarded a 2025 Silvers Grant for Work in Progress and shortlisted for a 2025 J. Anthony Lukas Work-In-Progress Award.
Akemi has also written for The New York Times, The Nation, NPR’s Code Switch, The Washington Post, Travel + Leisure, and other publications. She has been the recipient of a Fulbright grant to Japan, the James D. Phelan Award from the San Francisco Foundation, and residencies at Mesa Refuge and Playa.
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