The Writer’s Center presents a FREE virtual chat about the craft of fiction! We’re joined by author for a discussion of her new collection of stories, But Where’s Home? Toni Ann is in conversation with Zach Powers, novelist and Executive & Artistic Director at The Writer’s Center.
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TONI ANN JOHNSON is the winner of the 2021 Flannery O’Connor Award for short fiction with her linked collection Light Skin Gone to Waste, released in October 2022. Roxane Gay selected the book for the prize and is its editor. Johnson’s novella Homegoing was a semi-finalist for the William Faulkner Wisdom Award in fiction. It won Accents Publishing’s inaugural novella contest in 2020 and was released in May of 2021. The novel Remedy For a Broken Angel was released in 2014 and earned Johnson a 2015 NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Literary Work by a Debut Author.
About the Book
It’s 1963 in the small town of Monroe, New York. The Arringtons, a Black family, buy a house in a picturesque, all-white neighborhood. Some residents are welcoming, but many react to Dr. Philip Arrington, his wife Velma, and their daughters Livia and Maddie by conspiring against their success in both big and small ways. Amidst this mix of hostility and shaky acceptance, the Arringtons must navigate their careers, deal with a volatile marriage, and raise their daughters.
But Where’s Home?, Toni Ann Johnson’s linked short story collection, explores the sometimes painful and often humorous experiences of the Arrington family as upper-middle-class Black people in a predominantly white, mostly working-class community. This book follows Johnson’s previous collection, Light Skin Gone to Waste, which won the 2021 Flannery O’Connor Award. Through multiple perspectives that span from the 1960s to 2022, readers are invited into the lives of the eldest daughter, who longs for her father’s affection while striving for independence; the youngest daughter, who seeks to overcome childhood pain through music and love; a mother dealing with infidelity that wounds and infuriates her, while raising her daughters in a place that rejects them; and a father practicing psychology while engaging in affairs with the white women of the town.
Deeply emotional, funny, and unflinchingly honest, But Where’s Home? lays bare the realities of Black life in America, challenging readers to confront issues of racism, classism, colonized thinking, narcissism, abuse, and parent-child relationships. Johnson’s complex and interwoven characters create a kaleidoscope of truths about human nature and the complicated relationship the United States has with race.
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