A former English teacher and journalist, Johnnie Bernhard is passionate about reading and writing. Her work(s) have appeared in publications, both nationally and internationally, such as The Mississippi Press, Word Among Us, Southern Writers Magazine, The Texas Review, Southern Literary Review, and the Cowbird-NPR production on small town America. Her entry, “The Last Mayberry,” received over 7,500 views, nationally and internationally. A Good Girl was short listed in the 2015 William Faulkner-William Wisdom International Creative Writing Competition, as well as featured novel for panel discussion at the 2017 Mississippi and Louisiana Book Festivals. It was represented by Texas Review Press at the 2017 Texas Book Festival. A Good Girl is a finalist in the 2017 national Kindle Book Award for literary fiction, a nominee for the 2018 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize, and a Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters nominee for 2017 Fiction. Johnnie’s second novel, How We Came to Be is a finalist in the International Faulkner-Wisdom Competition. It has been chosen for panel discussion at the 2018 Louisiana Center for the Book, Louisiana Book Festival and the 2018 Mississippi Book Festival. It has been named a "Must Read" by Southern Writers Magazine and a 2018 Summer Reading List by Deep South Magazine. Her third novel, Sisters of the Undertow was chosen for discussion at the 2020 national AWP Conference, the Pat Conroy Literary Center of South Carolina, the Southern Book Festival/Humanities Tennessee, and Words and Music Literary Feast of New Orleans. Named “Best of the University Presses, 100 Books” by the Association of University Presses, Sisters of the Undertow was placed in the Texas Center for the Book, State Library Collection and received First Place in the Press Women of Texas Communications Contest. Her fourth novel, Hannah & Ariela (TCU Press) will launch nationally on August 1, 2022.