Fran Moreland Johns is the author most recently of Marshallville Stories, a collection of short stories illuminating life in a small Virginia town in the 1940s. Earlier books include Perilous Times: An inside look at abortion before – and after – Roe v Wade (YBK Publishers, 2013) and Dying Unafraid (Synergistic Press, 1999), a nonfiction book telling of people who did just that. Dying Unafraid led to other published work on end-of-life issues and ongoing activism in the field. Similarly, publication of Perilous Times led to frequent talks, articles and continuing work in behalf of reproductive justice.
Johns has also authored essays, articles, columns and short stories published since the 1950s.
Until its purchase by Forbes in August, 2010, Johns wrote a paid blog, Boomers & Beyond, for news aggregate Web site True/Slant; she currently blogs on Medium, here at franjohns.net and regularly as a guest blogger for sites such as http://www.endoflifechoicesca.org.
A graduate of Randolph-Macon Woman’s College and long-time newspaper and magazine writer, Johns later earned her MFA in Short Fiction from the University of San Francisco and began publishing short stories, including prize-winning stories in Literal Latte and the Cape Fear Mystery Festival’s 2006 contest and chapbook. Her fiction and nonfiction works have appeared in USA Today, Grit, Parenting, online sites and elsewhere; an autobiographical feature was published in the February, 2011 issue of More Magazine. She is the author of several nonfiction books, including the biographical memoir Never In Doubt, and recipient of a California Senior Leaders award.
A native of Virginia who spent much of her adult life in Atlanta, Johns now lives in San Francisco where she is also active in interfaith and arts causes. The mother of three and grandmother of five, she was married to writer/editor Bud Johns from 1992 until his death in 2019.