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Kirk Wallace Johnson

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Kirk Wallace Johnson served in Iraq with the US Agency for International Development in Baghdad and Fallujah as the Agency’s first co-ordinator for reconstruction in the war-torn city. He went on to found The List Project to Resettle Iraqi Allies. His work on behalf of Iraqi refugees was profiled by This American Life, 60 Minutes, the Today Show, the subject of a feature-length documentary, The List, and a memoir, To Be a Friend is Fatal.

A Senior Fellow at the USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy, and the recipient of fellowships from the American Academy in Berlin, Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, and the Wurlitzer Foundation, his writing has appeared in The New Yorker, the New York Times and the Washington Post. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, son and daughter.

Books by Kirk Wallace Johnson

The Feather Thief

A page-turning story of a bizarre and shocking crime, and one man’s relentless quest for justice.

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The Fishermen and the Dragon

New York Public Library Best of 2022

A gripping, twisting account of a small town set on fire by hatred, xenophobia, and ecological disaster—a story that weaves together corporate malfeasance, a battle over shrinking natural resources, a turning point in the modern white supremacist movement, and one woman’s relentless battle for environmental justice.

“Riveting…it has a little of everything that a thrilling story needs.  It feels quite prescient, as if something we’re living out now, you can see scenes of it then.  A gripping book that deserves a wide readership.”--George Packer, author of The Unwinding

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