Johanna Bell author page

Johanna Bell biography

Johanna Bell is an Australian author, poet and community arts practitioner based in Nipaluna (Hobart). Her work spans picture books, poetry and storytelling.

Bell has collaborated with artists including Emma Long, Dion Beasley and Erica Wagner. Her picture book Searching for Treasure, illustrated by Emma Long, explores beachcombing and ecological discovery along the coastline.

She has worked on community arts projects, participatory journalism and social research in schools, libraries, remote communities and cultural institutions across Australia.

Bell won the 2024 CBCA Best New Illustrator Award for Hope Is the Thing and was shortlisted for the 2025 Tasmanian Literary Award for Writing for Children & Young People. In 2024, she published the picture book Digger Digs Down, illustrated by Huni Melissa Bolliger.