Jocelyn Nicole Johnson: On Community, Identity, and Writing ”My Monticello” (Part 1)

In this first interview of the Creative Changemakers series, Bree Luck chats with Jocelyn Nicole Johnson about her debut book, 'My Monticello'. In this episode, we discuss how cultural events, like the violent Unite The Right events in Charlottesville, VA, and environmental events, like the fires in California, inspired the creation of this novel -- and the impact it has had on readers.

Jocelyn Nicole Johnson is the author of My Monticello,  a fiction debut that was called "a masterly feat" by the New York Times and finalist for the Kirkus Prize and the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize. Johnson has been a fellow at TinHouse, Hedgebrook, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Her writing appears in Guernica, The Guardian and elsewhere. Her short story “Control Negro” was anthologized in The Best American Short Stories 2018, guest edited by Roxane and read live by LeVar Burton for Selected Shorts. A veteran public school art teacher, Johnson lives and writes in Charlottesville, Virginia.

This episode was sponsored by Codebase Coworking in Charlottesville, VA. 

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ONE MORE THING!

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Stay curious, y'all!

xoBree

P.S. All of these episodes are possible thanks to:
Codebase Coworking
as well as my dear friends over at WTJU Charlottesville!