Curriculum Vitae
Bio
Formed by the long shadow of the Oklahoma Dust Bowl, Ben Johnson ran far away, but those pumpjacks and red dirt will always be his homeland. He started as an outsider – A fat kid in a skinny world, a free thinker in an evangelical theocracy, a union boss and then a persuader – and he kept himself an outsider, whether he liked it or not. He ran so far that now he’s snuck up on himself from behind.
Books
Fury & Grace is in the almost-obligatory genre for a first book by a writer such as myself: a screaming memoir. http://tiny.cc/vxs3001
Finding the Pearl in the Storm is a handbook of labor organizing campaigns, written in the style of The Art of War. http://tiny.cc/oxs3001
The Chronicles of PJ & The Dangler is a psychological horror novella about a child sex abuse survivor’s quest for vengeance, and his inadvertent healing. http://tiny.cc/kxs3001
Screenplays
“The Persuaders” 2023. Pilot episode for a serial drama set in the world of union organizing campaigns. Persuaders and union organizers must find the humanity in themselves before they become the enemies they fight. https://writers.coverfly.com/projects/view/128b66a0-fb53-4aeb-a1f3-1e6dbe6a177f/The_Persuaders
Quarterfinalist, Emerging Screenwriters Screenplay Competition 2024
Quarterfinalist, Outstanding Screenplays TV Pilot Competition 2024
Quarterfinalist, Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards Summer 2023
Honorable Mention, Big Apple Film Festival Screenplay Competition Fall 2023
“The Island of Misfit Toys” 2024 Feature drama. When the Vatican hires cold-blooded fixer the Mantis and unstable Vermont psychoanalyst Thomas to solve the pedophile priest problem once and for all, Thomas uses his crackpot therapy techniques to usher in a return to the Church's golden age of Inquisitions, but a young altar server's quest to find a missing priest turns everything upside down. https://writers.coverfly.com/projects/view/cb290132-b1db-49a8-8653-697b54f788f3/The_Island_of_Misfit_Toys
Semifinalist, Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards Spring 2024
Finalist, Page Turner Awards - Page Turner Screenplay Award 2024
“Black Blizzard” 2024. Feature drama. Logic savant and sex-worker Cali has to overcome her crime-boss uncle so she can save her friend before both women's lives are destroyed. https://writers.coverfly.com/projects/view/2d51847f-1a59-4932-989d-a966ae33a982/Black_Blizzard
Theater
“My Testimony: Fury & Grace” 2024. Original one-man show set as a sermon at a revival meeting. Premiered at the OFF Center for the Perforeming arts in Burlington, Vermont. Directed buy Michael Halloran. Performances in Barre Vermont; future performances being scheduled.
“A Perfect Arrangement” 2024. Role of Ted Sunderson, Fairfax Community Theater.
Articles
“Lessons from the Book of the Woods” Fur-Fish-Game, January 2025
Back-page meditative essay on one’s ever-changing identity.
“The Babysitters Union” 2018 https://capitalresearch.org/article/the-babysitters-union-part-1/
Four-part essay telling the story of my five-year involvement of a project to organize early childcare workers in Vermont when I was President of AFT Vermont.
“The Insider’s Tale: The People Haven’t Spoken” 2018 https://capitalresearch.org/article/one-the-insiders-tale/
Three-part essay giving my controversial perspective on ‘Right to Work,’ a hot-button issue inside organized labor as the former President of the Vermont AFL-CIO.
“Unions Must End Forced Dues” 2018 https://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/aug/22/unions-must-end-forced-dues/
An opinion piece on ‘Right to Work,’ the term for legislation which prohibits unions from requiring workers to pay dues as a condition of employment.
Education
MLIS (Library and Information Studies) University of Oklahoma, 2003
BLS (Philosophy) Boston University, 2000
Work
Writer and Peformer, November 19th, 1974 - present
Persuader, 2017 - Present
Union Officer, 2006-2016.
President AFT Vermont 2010-2016
President, Vermont AFL-CIO 2009-2011
College Librarian, 2003 - 2012
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