Robert Olen Butler: "Reading Dedra Johnson’s Sandrine’s Letter to Tomorrow, I was fully in the presence of the mind, heart, and soul of a richly rendered, fascinating fictional character. I knew I was also in the presence of the brilliant voice and sensibility of a major new American writer. This is an important novel by a true artist."

Frederick Barthelme: "Dedra Johnson has caught something wonderful in Sandrine's Letter to Tomorrow. She writes brilliantly about childhood, New Orleans, the intricacies of a vexed family life. Sandrine is a remarkable debut novel that will catch your heart."

Booklist: "...the dialogue is fast and lively, and Sandrine’s first-person narrative delivers immediate, searing drama, showing her pride, passion, and courage as she breaks stereotypes"

Publisher's Weekly: "This aching debut explores a girl's coming-of-age in poverty-drenched mid-1970s New Orleans....As she grows, Sandrine finds empowerment in knowledge of her body (taught to her by an older classmate, Lydia, whose step-dad molests her) and the recognition that learning is her only escape from the defeating cycle of early pregnancy, poverty and general futility. There are echoes of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and Sandrine, with her fierce pride, is an instantly likable underdog."

The Times-Picayune (New Orleans): "Johnson perfectly captures the voice of a young girl, searching for acceptance and friendship. In Sister Paul and the nuns at her New Orleans school, Sandrine finds mentors and models for kindness; in the women who work at her father's clinic, she finds solace. In a new life with her father, she allows herself to feel "small and safe," confident that she has come home at last. After such a bleak existence, she is allowed that ray of hope, that most basic right of childhood.

Johnson's novel was a finalist for the 2006 William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Award. She has a lot to say in this debut novel, the herald of good things to come. Young Sandrine Miller takes her place alongside Sapphire's Precious Jones or Toni Morrison's Pecola Breedlove, memorable young women who have a message for readers young and old."

Q&A, Publisher's Weekly, 10/1/07

The Tom Dent Forum: Jarita Davis featuring Danille Taylor, Ph.D., Dedra Johnson, and guest author Jarita Davis.
The Tom Dent Literary Festival, African American Resource Center/New Orleans Public Library, New Orleans, Louisiana, November, 2004.

“Black Authors Speak!” featuring Saddi Khali, Glenn Joshua and Dedra Johnson; moderated by Mona Lisa Saloy.
New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, April 2003.

“Lucky” (short story)
Bridge, Fall/Winter 2002, Chicago, Illinois.
Available at http://dedraj.blogspot.com/2007/02/lucky.html

Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Award, 1995
Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia.
Honorable Mention/Third Place: “Eggshell” (short story)

“Wednesday Morning” (short story)
Product 9, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, Mississippi, 1993.
Available at http://dedraj.blogspot.com/2007/02/wednesday-morning.html

Agnes Nixon Playwriting Festival, 1988
Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
First Place: “Eden, Mississippi”
Production: Hal and Martha Hyer Wallis Theatre, Theatre and Interpretation Center.

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University teaching (first-year composition, playwriting, screenwriting, fiction and fundamentals--poetry, fiction, non-fiction and drama)

Line-editing, copyediting and proofreading, primarily for academics/academic publication