K.V. Johansen was born in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, and grew up in "the old Sproule house" (built 1867) in the nearby village of Westbrook, now engulfed by urban sprawl. She studied English and History at Mount Allison University, where she hosted a radio show, "Eclectic Chaos," on the campus station, CHMA. She did a Master's Degree in Medieval Studies at the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto. At McMaster University in Hamilton she did a second M.A., this time in English, writing a thesis on Layamon's Brut. She now lives in Sackville, N.B.
    In 2000 Johansen received an Early Childhood Literacy Award from the Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick. She held the 2001 Eileen Wallace Research Fellowship in Children's Literature from the Eileen Wallace Collection at the University of New Brunswick. She also received the 2004 Frances E. Russell Award for research in children's literature from the Canadian section of IBBY, the International Board on Books for Young People. She is a member of The Writers' Union of Canada.