Patience, Perspective, and the Power of Story: An Interview with Toni Ann Johnson, by Scott LaMascus Interviews [email protected] Mon, 10/16/2023 - 13:46 Storyteller Toni Ann Johnson uses her skills as an actor, playwright, and fiction writer to tell powerful stories of race, reconciliation, and the effects of lingering racism. She is award-winning on stage and screen, most recently with her story collection Light Skin Gone to Waste (University of Georgia Press, 2022), selected for the 2021 Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. When I spoke to Johnson in Los Angeles and later by email, we explored the role stories can play in our understanding of truths, including matters many would rather forget. Scott LaMascus: If you were joining the late Flannery O’Connor on her porch in Milledgeville, Georgia, what do you hope she would praise about your stories that were honored with the award named for her? Toni Ann Johnson: I wouldn’t expect Ms. O’Connor to praise my stories. Her racism would likely have prevented her from appreciating their subject matter. In her letters, she wrote: About the Negroes, the kind I don’t like is the philosophizing prophesying pontificating kind, the James Baldwin kind. Very ignorant but never silent. Baldwin can tell us what it feels like to be a Negro in Harlem but he tries to tell us everything else too. O’Connor was put off by James Baldwin’s writing because it dared to stray beyond the... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2023-10-16 18:46:19 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Mon, 20/06/2011 - 09:03 Andrea Levy's Man Booker-shortlisted The Long Song (Headline Review) has been lauded by judges of the Walter Scott Prize for its "imaginative depth", as the author won the £25,000 award. The prize was bestowed on the author... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Caroline Horn Publication Date: Fri, 17/06/2011 - 07:59 The Seven Stories centre for children's books in Newcastle is to benefit from a £750,000 endowment donated by the Enid Blyton Trust for Children, following a decision to close the Enid Blyton Trust and donate its funds to one... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publication Date: Wed, 15/06/2011 - 08:50 Titles on Chairman Mao, the Cavaliers of the English Civil War and Italian artist Caravaggio have been shortlisted for the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2011. The six-strong list a reflection of a remarkable publishing year features Mao's... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 09/06/2011 - 09:50 Arrow's release today of Tony Blair's political memoir A Journey with a new introduction has sparked widespread media coverage. Extracts from the new introduction are posted on the book's website, tonyblairjourney.co.uk,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Tue, 24/05/2011 - 08:25 Sam Harrison at Aurum has bought a biography of Cold War spy George Blake by journalist Roger Hermiston. Harrison acquired UK and Commonwealth rights for a "significant" five figure sum from Andrew Gordon at David Higham... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Bookseller Staff Publication Date: Wed, 11/05/2011 - 10:46 Publishers selling direct to readers, printers folding and more agents becoming publishers are some of the implications of digital, claims former Borders chairman Luke Johnson. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publication Date: Fri, 06/05/2011 - 08:35 Vintage assistant editor Kay Peddle has been awarded the Kim Scott Walwyn Prize 2011 for her Brain Shots audiobooks project for Bodley Head. She received the prize, which recognises the professional achievements of women in publishing yesterday evening... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Wed, 20/04/2011 - 07:54 Former Borders UK owner Luke Johnson has warned Tim Waterstone off trying to buy back Waterstone's. Waterstone is believed to be the sole frontrunner for the bookseller and has teamed up with Russian billionaire Alexander Mamut... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Katie Allen Publication Date: Fri, 15/04/2011 - 08:46 Titles on topics from Second World War bombers to the life of Roald Dahl have been longlisted for the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2011. The list of 18 books also includes Edmund De Waals Costa-winning The Hare with... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publication Date: Tue, 12/04/2011 - 17:05 Editors from Simon & Schuster, Atlantic, Random House and Meadowside Children's Books have made it onto the shortlist for the 2011 Kim Scott Walwyn Prize. The award recently refocused its criteria, teaming up with the Society of Young Publishers... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Mon, 11/04/2011 - 15:45 Sphere believes it has a smashing winner with the acquisition of the autobiography of Rafael Nadal, the Spanish tennis ace and current world number one. Non-fiction publishing director Adam Strange bought UK and... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Algonquin Books held the first in its new Algonquin Book Club Author Interviews March 21 at Miami's independent bookseller Books & Books, where local author Edwidge Danticat and local favorite Julia Alvarez sat down to talk about Alvarez's In the Time of the Butterflies. The sold-out event... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-04-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publication Date: Fri, 01/04/2011 - 11:14 Six titles spanning imperial Japan to 19th-century Jamaica have been shortlisted for the second Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction, worth £25,000. Andrea Levy's The Long Song (Headline Review) and Tom McCarthy's C (Jonathan Cape) both shortlisted... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Thu, 17/03/2011 - 15:57 Luke Johnson, best known in the book trade for his spell owning Borders, and fellow Financial Times journalist Mrs Moneypenny are writing business titles for Penguin's business imprint Portfolio. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Katie Allen Publication Date: Wed, 16/03/2011 - 16:23 Atlantic Books has made five positions redundant, including commercial director Daniel Scott, a cut of around 15% to the 34-strong staff. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Mon, 21/02/2011 - 08:40 Man Booker winner Hilary Mantel and Susan Hill are among the writers longlisted for the £30,000 Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award 2011. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 18/02/2011 - 08:18 Virago is publishing a new collection of 13 early short stories by Daphne du Maurier, including five discovered by a Cornish bookseller and du Maurier enthusiast. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publication Date: Tue, 15/02/2011 - 09:47 Operation Mincemeat author Ben Macintyre is to chair the judging panel for this year's BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction. The panel also comprises historian, writer and broadcaster Amanda Vickery, Prospect's editor-at-large David Goodhart,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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By Tim Conneally, Betanews At a special event in Mountain View, California Wednesday, search leader Google gave the first in-depth look at "Honeycomb," the tablet-specific version of the Android operating system. This is the biggest overhaul the platform has gotten since it debuted in 2008. The... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2011-02-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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