Johnna Schmidt

Creative Writer · Educator · Community Builder · Dog-Lover

Johnna was the Director of the Jimenez-Porter Writers’ House at University of Maryland from 2005-2022, where she taught fiction, scriptwriting and poetry to advanced undergraduate students.  During this time she co-led literary study abroad programs to four different countries:  Chile, Egypt, Morocco, and Ireland, for a total of nineteen trips.  Among her awards is a President's Service Award (under Barack Obama) for her work delivering a summer-camp experience to rural Egyptian orphans during a study abroad program. 

Johnna values community as a basis for deep learning, and finds travel to be an excellent conduit for mind expanding and life-enhancing experiences.  She works to foster connection within the community of travelers she serves.  

Johnna holds an MFA in Creative Writing: Fiction, from University of Maryland, and her work has been published in Beltway Journal for the Arts, Little Patuxent Review, Bloom, and Dear Robot: an Anthology of Epistolary Science Fiction, and LIT among others. She is the grateful recipient of artist’s residencies at Casa Uno in Costa Rica (2023, 2025).

She loves hiking and biking, and lives in the Washington DC area with her third rescue dog, a Plott Hound named Clover.