University of Redlands
The Visiting Writers Series will feature a reading and book signing by author Dana Johnson at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 12, 2015 in the Hall of Letters 100 on the Redlands campus. This is the second event in the series, which is free and open to the public.
Dana Johnson's most recent novel, Elsewhere, California, was published in 2012. Danzy Senna, author of You Are Free and Caucasia, has praised the book, stating that Johnson "offers an arresting vision of black female identity that transcends color and class even as it reveals its continuing power in our lives…(and) speaks directly to a whole generation raised in a state of cultural confusion."
Lynell George from the Los Angeles Times writes that the central character's "evolution-a black woman trying to claim her place-is as heartbreaking as it is humorous, powerful as it is poignant, because Johnson so assertively confronts those complexities."
Johnson is also the author of the story collection Break Any Woman Down, which won the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction and was a finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. Her work has appeared in many literary journals and anthologies.
Born and raised in and around Los Angeles, California, she is an associate professor of English at the University of Southern California where she teaches literature and creative writing, and is a conference staff member of the fiction program at the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley.
Upcoming events in the Visiting Writers Series will include poet Connie Voisine, on March 12 and the Senior Portfolio/Redlands Review Reading on April 7.
For more information, please contact the Creative Writing Department at 909-748-8260.
