Maura K. Johnston (born May 28, 1975) is a writer, editor and music critic. A member of Boston College's journalism faculty, she has written for Rolling Stone, The Boston Globe, Pitchfork, The Awl, The New York Times, Spin and The Guardian. She is working on a critical biography of Madonna for the Harlequin Enterprises subsidiary Hanover Square Press.^[1]

Johnston was a founding editor of Gawker Media's Idolator, where she worked until November 2009.^[2] In April 2011, she became the music editor of The Village Voice,^[3] holding that position until September 2012.^[4] In 2013, she launched the culture periodical Maura Magazine, which was published by 29th Street Publishing through 2015.^[5]

She is an adjunct professor at Boston College, which named her the inaugural Institute for Liberal Arts Journalism Fellow in 2013.^[6] From 2010 to 2013, she taught at New York University's Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music.

Johnston is involved with Boston College's non-commercial radio station WZBC as a DJ and advisory board member and has DJed at WNUR and WPRB. She has discussed music and popular culture on NPR, WNYC, WBUR and CBC Radio. She has appeared in a handful of music videos, including Speedy Ortiz's "The Graduates",^[7] and contributed violin and viola to records by artists including Lefty's Deceiver and Kincaid.^[8]

A native of Hicksville, New York, Johnston graduated from Northwestern University in 1997.