Rebecca Johns grew up in northern Illinois and attended Antioch Community High School. She then attended University of Missouri at Columbia, where she majored in Journalism and English (1993). Johns has written for several notable publications, including Women's Day, Self , Cosmopolitan , Chicago Tribune, Ladies' Home Journal, Harvard Review, and Madamoiselle.

Icebergs

Ms. Johns is the author of Icebergs (2006), for which she received the Michener - Copernicus Award. Icebergs opens in Canada during World War II with a harrowing plane crash. Crewmember Walt Dunmore returns home, but his life and those of his family are forever altered by the damage the tragedy causes. Icebergs follows Walt and his family from Canada to the United States through multiple generations, with the past casting a shadow over their lives. Icebergs was a finalist for the 2007 Hemingway Foundation / PEN Award for first fiction .

The Countess

The Countess is Ms. Johns' newest work (October 2010). The novel follows the life of Elizabeth Báthory (Erzsebet Báthory), the "Blood Countess" who is widely accreditted with being one of the historical figures that inspired the fictonal Dracula.