Erika Johansen

Erika Johansen is an American novelist who made her debut with The Queen of the Tearling (2014), an epic fantasy about a young woman claiming a hidden throne in a post-collapse future kingdom. The book became a bestseller and drew attention when actress Emma Watson championed it and signed on to an eventual film adaptation, helping establish Johansen as a notable new voice in adult fantasy. She completed the trilogy with The Invasion of the Tearling (2015) and The Fate of the Tearling (2016), building a world that blends fantasy politics with echoes of a lost modern-day society, and later returned to it with the prequel novella Beneath the Keep (2021). She has also written The Kingdom of Sweets, a darker reimagining of the Nutcracker story.