Martha Jean Johnson is a writer of fiction and author of a series of books and articles on public opinion and public policy. Her debut novel, The Queen’s Musician, will be published in May 2025 by SparkPress and distributed by Simon & Schuster. She also reviews historical fiction and discusses her own love of reading and writing in her biweekly blog, Historical Magic.

She currently splits her time between novel writing and working with the National Issues Forums Institute, an organization that encourages civil discourse and nonpartisan deliberation on national and local issues.

During a long public policy career, she analyzed and reported on American public thinking, working with noted social analyst and public opinion pioneer, Daniel Yankelovich. She has published articles in USA Today and The Huffington Post and appeared on CNN, MSNBC, and PBS. She is the author of three nonfiction books with Scott Bittle—all from HarperCollins: Where Does the Money Go? Your Guided Tour to the Federal Budget Crisis; Who Turned Out the Lights? Your Guided Tour to the Energy Crisis; and Where Did the Jobs Go? In 2012, she published You Can’t Do It Alone: A Communications and Engagement Manual for School Leaders Committed to Reform (Rowman & Littlefield).

More recently, she has focused on fiction, and her upcoming novels are described in this web site. She holds degrees from Mount Holyoke College, Brown University, and Simmons College.