Local StoriesMay 19, 2026

Check Out Johanna Piard’s Story

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Johanna Piard.

Hi Johanna, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I have always said that my first love was storytelling. Long before I ever considered becoming a writer professionally, I was the child constantly buried in books, films, journals, and anything that could transport me into another world. My mother read to me every night, and once I learned to read on my own, I became deeply fascinated by the emotional and imaginative power of narrative itself, always with a book in hand or in front of a screen.

Growing up in South Florida as the daughter of Haitian immigrants, I was also shaped by the stories, rhythms, and contradictions of Miami — a city that feels cinematic, layered, beautiful, and constantly reinventing itself. Over time, that fascination with storytelling evolved into writing my own work.

I studied English with concentrations in literary theory, Caribbean literature, creative writing, and film, eventually earning my master’s degree in English while teaching writing and rhetoric to students in Miami. At the same time, I continued developing my own creative projects, particularly fiction rooted in South Florida history, identity, memory, class, and Caribbean cultural inheritance.

More than anything, writing has become not only a refuge for me, but a form of preservation — a way to explore the worlds cultivated in my imagination while preserving the emotional truths, histories, and cultural textures that shaped me.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
My grandfather, who was a lawyer and later a Supreme Court judge in Haiti, had always dreamed of becoming a writer, hiding his unpublished manuscripts away in his desk for years.

Growing up, getting your ducks in a row was a long-held Piard tradition. Education, stability, and building a secure life were prioritized, while the arts often existed more for leisure, beauty, and personal fulfillment than as a practical profession capable of putting food on the table. Because of that, it can sometimes feel difficult to fully take stock of your own artistic ambitions, especially when you are among the first in your family to pursue them seriously within your field.

At times, balancing creativity alongside responsibility, work, and self-doubt has been challenging, but I also believe that tension has deeply shaped me as a writer. It has made me more attentive to memory, migration, sacrifice, class, and the emotional interior lives people quietly carry with them — themes that continue to influence my work today.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
What I specialize in most is storytelling rooted in South Florida history, Caribbean cultural inheritance, and the emotional interior lives of people navigating race, class, migration, intimacy, and ambition. Much of my work is deeply inspired by Miami itself — a city I’ve always experienced as cinematic, layered, beautiful, and constantly reinventing itself.

I’m especially drawn to stories where atmosphere, memory, music, food, architecture, and family dynamics become part of the emotional language of the narrative itself. A great deal of my work is interested in portraying Black and Caribbean life with tenderness, sensuality, humor, softness, and emotional complexity through ordinary moments of intimacy and connection — communal dinners, dancing, kitchens, hosting, conversation, movement, and the rhythms of everyday life that often go overlooked.

My creative background spans literature, film, and education, which has naturally shaped the way I approach storytelling. Whether through fiction, visual storytelling, or teaching, I’m deeply interested in how people construct identity, belonging, and desire within rapidly changing cultural landscapes.

Currently, I’m completing my debut novel, The Affair of Alice Hall, a historical literary drama set in Miami during the summer of 1958. The novel explores race, labor, social mobility, longing, and Caribbean spiritual inheritance against the backdrop of a transforming city. In many ways, the project reflects the kinds of stories I longed to encounter growing up — stories that center Black and Caribbean interiority with tenderness, beauty, emotional depth, and cinematic texture.

What I’m most proud of is continuing to pursue creative work with intention while balancing teaching, community, and everyday responsibility. More than anything, I hope my work contributes to a broader understanding of Miami and the Caribbean as places filled not only with contradiction and history, but with deeply human stories worth preserving.

We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
I wouldn’t necessarily call it luck as much as I would call it community, consistency, and remaining open to connection. Many of the opportunities I’ve received over the years — from producing films and working on podcasts to developing my own creative projects — came through relationships built over time and through simply continuing to show up for the work.

At the same time, I do think there’s a certain kind of “luck” that comes from being willing to put yourself in creative spaces before you fully feel ready. Some of the most meaningful experiences in my career have come from saying yes to collaboration, community, and opportunities that initially intimidated me.

More than anything, I’ve learned that creative work rarely happens in isolation. The people who encourage you, challenge you, recommend you, read your work, or simply believe in your voice often become just as important as talent itself.

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