Kristin Johannsen
Freelance writer

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Kristin Johannsen writes on travel, culture, and the environment. After living in Europe, the Middle East, and East Asia for twenty years, she now makes her home in Berea, Kentucky. She has published three books.

Her travel articles have appeared in newspapers worldwide, including the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Dallas Morning News, San Francisco Chronicle, Denver Post, The Independent (London), Japan Times (Tokyo), South China Morning Post (Hong Kong), and New Zealand Herald (Auckland).

Among her magazine credits are Mother Jones, Voyageur, Blue Ridge Country, Kentucky Living, Texas Highways, New Mexico Journey, Nevada Magazine, Tokyo Journal, Traveller (London), Gulf Weekly (Dubai), Morning Calm (Seoul), Caribbean Beat (Trinidad), and Golden Falcon (Bahrain).

She is also the author or co-author of more than thirty internationally-used textbooks for students of English as a Foreign Language. To read more about her work, click on Writing above.


Selected Works

Ginseng Dreams: The Secret World of America’s Most Valuable Plant
It’s the costliest plant in our forests, valued at up to $2000 a pound. It was an economic mainstay of the new American nation: John Jacob Astor made a fortune from it, and Daniel Boone lost one. An absorbing journey into the many worlds of this mysterious and potent plant, Ginseng Dreams tells the extraordinary story of America’s little-known natural treasure and the spell it casts over those who seek it.
Missing Mountains: We went to the mountaintop, but it wasn't there
edited by Kristin Johannsen, Bobbie Ann Mason, and Mary Ann Taylor-Hall

Thirty-five notable Kentucky authors, including Wendell Berry, Silas House, and Gwyn Hyman Rubio, write against mountaintop removal coal mining in this collection of essays, fiction, and poetry.
Ecotourism in Appalachia: Marketing the Mountains
Appalachia seems an ideal destination for ecotourists, with its rugged mountains, uniquely diverse forests, wild rivers, and lively arts culture. And ecotourism promises much for the region: protecting the environment while bringing income to disadvantaged communities. But can these promises be kept?

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