About the Author

Jesse Edward Johnson is a writer and artist based in the Pacific Northwest. He has a Ph.D. in English from UCLA, where he taught literature for five years. He has taught at Richard Hugo House in Seattle, and at San Quentin Prison.Yearbook is his first novel.

Reviews

"Lester Smith, the unlikely hero of this coming-of age story, captivates even as he infuriates. He's snarky and smart and will totally break your heart. For fans of John Green and Rainbow Rowell, Yearbook is your next favorite read." -- T Greenwood, author of "Where I Lost Her", "Two Rivers" & "Bodies of Water" "Jesse Edward Johnson's Yearbook is a highly original account of the thorny, hilarious world of high school. Set in 1996 but entirely in sync with contemporary adolescent angst and hijinks, the novel centers on the emotional development of its narrator Lester Smith, a jaded smart-aleck -- part Holden Caulfield, part contemporary hipster... Yearbook is an exceptional rendering of a vexed period in our growing up, an exploration of the mildly unhinged adolescent mind as it finds a measure of peace and equanimity." -- Paula Marantz Cohen, author of Jane Austen in Boca and Suzanne Davis Gets a Life Yearbook takes us on an unforgettable journey into the senior year of high school teen angstCompellingly told, brilliant in its ventriloquistic ability to capture the teens voices, this tale compels the reader to fall in love with these students raw desire and sheer ecstasy. -- Scott Driscoll, author of "Better You Go Home" Oh man, what a charming and deeply enjoyable novel. Lester is the perfect guide back to that bittersweet era known as the senior year of high school -- a time shot-through with joy and agony, as life pivots decisively away from adolescence. And what a great motif Johnsons found in the yearbook itself, that nostalgia-packing dispatch from the past. -- Peter Mountford, author of "A Young Man's Guide to Late Capitalism" & "The Dismal Science" "With Yearbook, Johnson does his part to stamp out boring art, one sentence at a time." -- John Baldessari