Kirk W. Johnson

Johnson was born in West Chicago, Illinois. His father, Thomas L. Johnson, served several terms as a Republican State Representative and Senator, and his mother, Virginia L. Johnson, was a policy advisor to the Illinois Attorney General. As a fifteen-year-old, Johnson visited Egypt with his grandmother, and began studying Arabic in evening classes at the College of DuPage, skipping his high school graduation to attend the Arabic Language Institute at the American University in Cairo. He graduated from the University of Chicago in 2002, with a degree in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. In addition to studying in Syria on a Foreign Language Acquisition Grant (2001), Johnson received a Fulbright Scholarship to conduct research on political Islamism in Egypt (2002–03). ==The List Project==

Johnson was opposed to the Iraq War, but felt an ethical obligation to help with the reconstruction efforts, which he supported as a way of righting a wrong. After returning from Iraq with PTSD, he was contacted by his former Iraqi colleagues, who were running for their lives as a result of working for the U.S. Government during the war. In December 2006, he wrote an op-ed for the "Los Angeles Times" calling upon the government to open its doors to these allies. In response, he was flooded with petitions from thousands of refugees, leading him to found the List Project to Resettle Iraqi Allies, a non-profit that marshaled hundreds of attorneys from the nations top law firms to represent their cases on a pro bono basis. Over the subsequent eight years, the List Project helped over 2,000 U.S.-affiliated Iraqis resettle to America. Johnson testified before Congress and worked closely with Senator Ted Kennedy toward the creation of the Special Immigrant Visa program, designated for Iraqis and Afghans that worked for the United States during the wars. His work was profiled in 60 Minutes, the Today Show, The New Yorker, and This American Life; it was the subject of his 2013 memoir To Be a Friend Is Fatal: the Fight to Save the Iraqis America Left Behind. == Literary career ==

After returning from Iraq, Johnson began fly-fishing, which led him to the story that would become his true crime book, The Feather Thief. The story is about how an American flutist, Edwin Rist stole remains of rare birds from the Natural History Museum in England. Hobbyists pay high prices for the feathers of exotic birds, including fly-fishers, who use them to catch fish. He learned of the heist when a guide from New Mexico told the story, leading to a five-year period of research and interviews, including with Rist. The Feather Thief was named an Amazon Best Book of 2018, shortlisted for a Crime Writers Association Gold Dagger Award, a finalist for the 2019 Edgar Awards (Best Fact Crime), a semifinalist for the Goodreads Choice Awards, and longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal. The Feather Thief made numerous lists, including Oprah's 20 Best True Crime Books of All Time, ''Outside's The Outdoor Books that Shaped the Last Decade, Buzzfeed's Best Books of 2018, Popular Mechanic's Best Sci/Tech Books of 2018, Forbes Best Books About Birds in 2018, Mental Floss'' Best Books of 2018, the American Birding Association's Best of 2018, ''BookPage's Best Books of 2018, BookRiot's Favorite Books of 2018, Outside's The Contemporary Adventure Canon, and Good Housekeeping's'' 25 Best True Crime Books of All Time. The Fishermen and the Dragon won the Carr P. Collins Award for Best Book of Nonfiction, and was named The Texas Observer's Best Nonfiction Book of 2022, New York Public Library's Best Books of 2022, the Friends of American Writers 2023 Literature Award, and was the selection for the 2023 Gulf Coast Reads Program. == Screenwriting career ==

Johnson is adapting The Feather Thief into a television series. He is the creator of an ongoing series, currently in development with Universal International Studios and Sue Naegle's Dinner Party Productions. Last Flight, a feature about the Fall of Kabul is currently in development with Babak Anvari directing and Benedict Cumberbatch starring. SunnyMarch and Two & Two Pictures are producing. The rights to The Fishermen and the Dragon were sold to George Clooney's production company for a multi-part series. ==Work with This American Life==

Johnson has recorded many pieces with This American Life, including: • Taking Names covers his experiences in the Iraq War and efforts to save his Iraqi colleagues. • The Feather Heist recounts his investigation that led to his book, The Feather Thief. • ''He's Making a List'' addresses the Trump refugee ban of 2017. • Getting Out deals with his actions to evacuate Afghans during the Fall of Kabul. • Pivot Point discusses his family's evacuation from the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires. ==Selected journalism==

• How Joe Biden Could Save Tens of Thousands of Afghan Allies. The New Yorker. • The Ornithologist the Internet Called a Murderer. The New York Times. • A DACA Recipient With an American Life Considers the Future. The New Yorker. • A Temporary Reprieve for Some Iraqi Refugees. The New Yorker. • A Yazidi Refugee, Stranded at the Airport by Trump. The New Yorker. • The Iraqi Friends We Abandoned. The New York Times. • The List. Guernica. • The Iraqi Allies We Left Behind. The Wall Street Journal. • In Iraq, Abandoning Our Friends. The New York Times. • We Can’t Abandon Iraqis who Aided the U.S.. The Washington Post. • Left Behind in Iraq. Foreign Policy. • Hounded by Insurgents, Abandoned by Us. The New York Times. • After the Fall. The Washington Post Magazine. • Safeguarding Our Allies. Los Angeles Times. ==Anthropic AI Lawsuit==

In 2024, Johnson was one of three lead plaintiffs (with Andrea Bartz and Charles Graeber) to bring what became the largest class action lawsuit for IP infringement in U.S. history on behalf of tens of thousands of authors whose works were pirated by Anthropic AI in the development of their LLMs. The subsequent settlement of $1.5B is the largest recovery in the history of U.S. copyright cases. ==Fellowships==

• Senior Fellow at the USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy, 2014–present • MacDowell Fellow, 2013 • Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, Fall 2011 • Bosch Public Policy Fellow, American Academy in Berlin, Fall 2010 • Yaddo, 2007 • Fulbright Scholar, Egypt, 2002-3 ==Bibliography==