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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A meta-narrator has an authorial awareness of a story being told. They make their presence known, intervening when they deem necessary. In the case that they are also the protagonist (which is often) then they must be as adept as immersing themselves in the real-time story unfolding up close as... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-10-24 08:15:09 UTC ]
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Publishers discuss how their new and upcoming titles consider the needs of women and girls. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-01-14 05:00:00 UTC ]
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The writer’s signature style of ending—a final, thrilling note—has the touch of magic that distinguishes the form at its best. Continue reading at New Yorker
[ New Yorker | 2021-06-28 10:00:00 UTC ]
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Andersen Press is to relaunch its weekly online children's storytime sessions in partnership with Seven Stories, the National Centre for Children's Books. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-15 10:26:35 UTC ]
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The Boston Book Festival has announced that a short story by Grace Talusan is the 10th annual selection for its One City One Story initiative. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-07-24 04:00:00 UTC ]
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THE STARLESS SEA, Erin Morgenstern’s sophomore fantasy novel, takes effort to read, but there are countless narratively complex works of science fiction and fantasy that amply reward such effort: N. K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season comes to mind as one recent, prominent example of the type. The... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-06-20 17:00:48 UTC ]
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The Edmund Kemper, audiobook narrator story is sensational. The work of The Blind Project, though, is vital, important, and worth knowing. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2019-10-14 10:35:39 UTC ]
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In pushing the romance genre aside, Australia’s publishing industry sent its most successful writers to pursue their careers abroadNalini Singh is trying to convince me to read a love story starring bears. The tiny author is tucked up under a huge scarf in a cafe on a freezing August day in... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2019-08-17 22:00:54 UTC ]
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In his new book, former F.C.C. Chariman Tom Wheeler deftly explores 500 years of network revolutions, and offers an invaluable take on the challenges we now face. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-03-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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First Story and the University of Cambridge are the new partners of the BBC’s short story awards, replacing BookTrust, in a three-year collaboration starting in 2018. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-09-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Her own is called “Gather Me: A Memoir in Praise of the Books That Saved Me,” which follows anthologies that grew out of founding the Well-Read Black Girl book club. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-11-21 10:00:06 UTC ]
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Advent, beginning December 1, is a spiritual warm-up to the joyful triumph of Christmas. And publishers are offering titles to brighten and enlighten people during the hectic holiday preparations. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-11-20 05:00:00 UTC ]
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A crowd protesting the Giller Foundation’s financial connections with the Israel Defense Forces picketed the gala on November 18, where Michaels was named this year's winner for her novel 'Held.' Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-11-19 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Sourcebooks has formed Hear Your Story, a new imprint featuring guided journals for families to share their memories and life lessons. The imprint is being formed in partnership with author Jeffrey Mason, who created the Hear Your Story series. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-11-19 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Dogeaters wasn’t just the first Filipino American novel I ever read; it was the first work of literary fiction I picked up on my own outside of a classroom. I was in my mid-twenties. I had already flunked out of college twice, having spent exponentially more time behind turntables, picking... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-11-13 09:56:39 UTC ]
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2024 has been a rough year for Sonos. The company’s would-be triumphant entry into the crowded headphones market was overshadowed by a disastrous app redesign. In the fallout of the botched software update, the company decided to delay products that were ready to be shipped to give itself more... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2024-11-11 13:00:11 UTC ]
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Former British prime minister kept bringing up his memoir despite being warned to ‘put it away’ and was later replaced on TV panelUS election 2024 – latest updatesUS election results 2024: live map and trackerBoris Johnson was “fired for banging on about his book” during a guest appearance on... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-11-06 01:15:40 UTC ]
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The best book club books coming out in November, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY's best books of 2024, 8 one-sitting-read horror novels, and more. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-11-02 15:00:00 UTC ]
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If you’re wondering what happened to Amazon’s new and improved version of its Alexa voice assistant, you’re not alone. Bloomberg reports that the new Alexa is still stuck in its developmental phase and Amazon has cut off access to its beta phase including its new “Let’s Chat” phase. As a result,... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2024-11-01 21:50:42 UTC ]
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Late in 1933, Dylan Thomas started writing a new short story. “The theme of the story I dreamed in a nightmare,” he wrote to a friend. “If successful, if the words fit to the thoughts, it will be one of the most ghastly short stories ever written.” Thomas was possessed, in part, by rejection.... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-10-31 08:56:14 UTC ]
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