When Annie Johnson, a University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) English instructor and the new editor of The Linden Review, took her first job within the University of Nebraska system, she didn’t know the decision would shape the rest of her life.
At the turn of the century, having earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Truman State University in Missouri, Johnson found herself working an “office job” at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC)—and at a crossroads, uncertain where her life may lead.
“I floundered in my early twenties,” said the instructor, “realizing that my imagined career of being a copy editor in New York or Chicago might not be as attainable as my idealistic self thought it would be.”
While working at UNMC, Johnson enrolled in graduate-level classes at the University of Nebraska at Omaha—which her job allowed her to do at no cost. It was there that she found her passion.
“I was happy to go back to the classroom,” she said. “And after taking a couple of grad classes, which I loved, I kept asking myself, ‘How can I just do this for my job?’
“It was then that I realized I wanted to be a teacher.”
As an undergrad, said Johnson, the idea of teaching had been something she had “resisted,” feeling pulled towards “writing and editing” immersed within big-city hurly burly. But after a few classes at UNO, something shifted.
She decided to go back to school.
Through an accelerated program largely administered in Omaha, Johnson earned a second bachelor's degree—this time a Bachelor of Science in secondary education—from Peru State College. In 2005, she began her career as a teacher, taking a job at Burke High School in Omaha, the same school she had student taught at while attending Peru State.
She would stay at Burke for about five years, taking the occasional graduate class at UNO but “mostly focused on the often-overwhelming task of keeping up with my 11th and 12th graders.”
In 2009, with the birth of her son, Johnson stepped away from the high school classroom—and into something new.
She took a one-year administrative leave from Omaha Public Schools (OPS), a leave that was extended when she became part of the UNO Department of English’s Graduate Teaching Assistant (TA) program.
“[I] ultimately left [OPS] when I was accepted as a Graduate Teaching Assistant in the UNO English Department in 2010,” she said, “an experience that ended up changing my life forever.”
At UNO, Johnson was given the opportunity to re-immerse herself in her early passion for writing while teaching students the art of composition and rhetoric.
“My TA-ship was transformative,” she said. “My years as a TA were among my most productive and innovative as a teacher and as a writer.
“Almost all of my classes were in Creative Nonfiction,” she added. “It was a genre I hadn’t been familiar with before, but it felt like coming home.”
In 2012, Johnson completed her Advanced Writing Graduate Certificate (ADWR) program and graduated with her Master of Arts. For the next eight years, from 2012-2020, she would continue to teach—primarily Composition II—as an adjunct while researching hybrid instruction, a “very new teaching modality” at the time. She also became a mentor for second-year TAs, helping them to navigate their first semester teaching Composition II.
That mentorship position, said Johnson, was “one of my favorite roles I've had in the department.”
In January 2021, Johnson stepped into a full-time position in the Department of English. Her first semester—like almost everything that year—happened entirely on Zoom.
“It was a strange way to begin,” she said, “but I was just grateful to be doing the work.”
Since then, she’s taught Comp I, Comp II, and Autobiographical Reading and Writing — all classes she has “enjoy[ed] tremendously.” She continued mentoring second-year TAs until 2024, and has also been involved in numerous committees and curricular efforts, both in the department and in the university at large.
This fall, Johnson will take on a new role as the managing editor of The Linden Review, a job that she says “combines so many of the things I love: creative nonfiction, editing, publishing, and community outreach.
“I’m really excited to work with Jody [Keisner] and keep building on the work she and Kyle [Simonsen] have already begun.”
Asked recently by her 12-year-old daughter what her dream job would be, Johnson said, “I already have my dream job!
“I began my time studying English as an undergraduate thinking that writing and editing would be my dream job,” she explained, “and now that I get to combine that with teaching, I feel like I've arrived at an even better destination than what I imagined for myself in my early 20s.”
“I truly love my work at UNO, and I feel proud to be part of such a committed and energetic community.”
When she’s not teaching, Johnson enjoys photography, traveling with her family, reading books, doing puzzles, and “drinking lots of coffee.”
