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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More growth in the seemingly unstoppable manga category and the ongoing struggles of librarians and comics retailers were among our most read stories on comics and graphic novels this year. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-12-20 05:00:00 UTC ]
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In talking about my debut story collection, House Gone Quiet, with friends and family, I’ve often found myself pitching the merits of the short story form itself. Due to habit or book marketing or a lack of exposure, it’s simply the case that most fiction readers who enter a bookstore are... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2023-12-19 12:00:00 UTC ]
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The literary world may have a complicated relationship to popularity—see every literary novelist’s love/hate (and almost always unrequited) relationship with the bestseller list—but the internet does not. Simply: it’s good to be read, and so we thank you, our readers, for consuming, commenting... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-12-18 09:52:49 UTC ]
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From a look at how bestselling novelist Colleen Hoover is fueling interest in contemporary Christian fiction to interviews with evangelical superstars David Platt and Beth Moore, here are PW’s most-read religion stories of 2023. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-12-13 05:00:00 UTC ]
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The publishing world made plenty of news in 2023, but not only because of the books themselves Continue reading at ABC News
[ ABC News | 2023-12-08 14:55:07 UTC ]
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PW looks back at the library stories that captivated the publishing world this year, and what they portend for 2024. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-12-08 05:00:00 UTC ]
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75 Notable Translations 2023, by Michelle Johnson Lit Lists [email protected] Mon, 12/04/2023 - 15:13 In an interview up at the Booker Prizes, 2023 International Booker Prize–winning translator Angela Rodel describes the work of author and... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2023-12-04 21:13:28 UTC ]
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“Going Infinite” may have missed the big takeaway, but it offers at least one undeniable pleasure: deep access. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-11-17 14:25:02 UTC ]
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Amid ongoing challenges, Black authors and editors are creating the love stories they want to read. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-11-17 05:00:00 UTC ]
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“I have a lot of books on near-death experiences, psychic phenomena and past-life regression on my shelves,” says the two-time poet laureate, whose new book is the memoir “To Free the Captives.” “These kinds of books nudge me to remember our world is but one facet of an enormous continuity.” Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-11-16 10:00:11 UTC ]
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The award-winning Irish author on losing his father at 18, the drawbacks of English editors and the theme of imprisonment in his workMike McCormack was born in London in 1965 and raised on a farm in County Mayo in the west of Ireland. He published his first story collection, Getting It in the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-11-11 18:00:01 UTC ]
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By publishing unflinching books on topics often perceived as controversial, small publishers can combat restrictions on intellectual freedom. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-11-10 05:00:00 UTC ]
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“The first condition is silence,” says the 2022 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, whose most recent book is “The Young Man.” “The when and where do not matter.” Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-11-09 19:42:28 UTC ]
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The awards recognize the best in Canadian books across 7 categories in both English and French. Other winners include Kyo Maclear, Hannah Green and Cliff Cardinal. Continue reading at CBC
[ CBC | 2023-11-08 12:00:00 UTC ]
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“The world here beats faster than a hummingbird’s wings,” writes Alexandra Chang in her new collection Tomb Sweeping. Chang, the author of Days of Distraction and a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 recipient, writes poignantly about tenuous connection. In these stories, a wealthy housewife... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2023-11-02 11:00:00 UTC ]
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The 13th Sharjah Publishers Conference has opened with broad-based considerations of issues facing the world book industry today. The post Sharjah Conference: ‘The Power of the Written Word’ appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2023-10-30 04:48:43 UTC ]
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T. Martin Bennett’s new historical novel looks at World War II from the perspective of the Japanese pilot who led the attack on Pearl Harbor. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-10-30 04:00:00 UTC ]
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With Halloween around the corner, Gilbert Cruz talks to the Book Review editors Tina Jordan and Sadie Stein about their favorite creepy books. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-10-27 15:52:21 UTC ]
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“I know my limitations, but I would still invite William Shakespeare,” says the actor, whose new memoir is “Being Henry: The Fonz … and Beyond.” “I would also invite Daniel Silva and definitely Larry David!” Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-10-26 12:16:08 UTC ]
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The ghost story is one of the most vibrant modes in U.S. American literature today. But why are ghost stories still relevant? Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-10-26 10:35:00 UTC ]
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