Vinegar Hill Magazine
Vinegar Hill magazine cover the 39th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Celebration: A Night of Inspiration and Unity. Read more here.
In the C’ville Weekly: Standing up for the Freedom to Read
In Charlottesville, Virginia, in front of City hall and the Free Speech Wall, Local Author Jocelyn Nicole Johnson spoke to a crowd gathered as part of Moveon.org’s Banned Bookmobile event, ahead of upcoming elections.
Visiting students in Cleveland
Jocelyn Nicole Johnson had the pleasure of meeting with Orange High school students as part of an author visit to Case Western University.
Author Visit to Colgate University
Jocelyn Nicole Johnson visited with students, faculty and community members as part of Living Writers Series.
AWM podcast
The American Writers Museum has made a podcast of the conversation between Jocelyn Nicole Johnson and novelist Rebecca Makkai, from their 2022 live event. Listen in here
My Monticello in Madrid
La Lumbre Libreria, an independent bookstore in Madrid, Spain, hosts a conversation about the Spanish Translation of the Novella, My Monticello. Check it out here
Midland News
“I have discovered many wonderful books, mostly in the young adult category, by reading news stories about what's being banned in public schools these days.. “ Read more here.
The Los Angeles Times
My Monticello was included in 'A Map of 1,001 novels to show us where to find the real America’ by Susan Straight. Check out this expansive and very cool way to browse books by region here
Famous Writer Routines
Jocelyn spoke with Famous Writer Routines
and showed her set up. Click here to read more.
Ursa Podcast
Jocelyn spoke with co-hosts Dawnie Walton and Deesha Philyaw about bravery in writing and the Introvert’s Revenge. Click here to listen or learn more.
Library of Virginia Literary Awards
My Monticello won the fiction award at the 25th Library of Virginia Literary Awards. Author Adriana Trigiana hosted the ceremony, and the other top winners included Rita Dove and Carolyn Eastman. Click here to read more about the event and to see a list of the other winners.
Canvas Rebel Interview
Check out a new interview at Canvas Rebel, a site highlighting entrepreneurs and creatives, here.
One Time Press Review
Dr. Brenda M. Greene wrote a review of My Monticello for One Time Press, describing the work as representing the “complexity of the Black experience in America.” The review may be viewed here.
Vulgar Genius Podcast
Jocelyn spoke with Vulgar Genius about My Monticello, writing inspiration, and her other short stories in the collection. Learn more here.
Southern Review of Books Interview
Jocelyn spoke with Christine McDowell Tucker in an interview for the Southern Review of Books. They spoke about writing inspiration, writing origins, and My Monticello, and her short stories. Read more here.
Newsradio WINA interview
Jocelyn spoke with WINA co-hosts Ravi Respeto and Price Thomas in the Envision series, which focuses on “authentic and candid conversations about our community.” Learn more here.
James Madison University Interview
Jocelyn spoke with her alma mater, James Madison University, about My Monticello, her time at JMU, and her writing path. The full interview may be read here.
New York Times "6 New Paperbacks To Read This Week
My Monticello was mentioned in a New York Times’ article about new paperback releases and was describe as a “gripping debut collection [that] presents finely drawn characters in tales that reckon with racism, trauma and American history.” The full review may be found here.
Hermette Magazine
Jocelyn spoke to Hermette about My Monticello and the Bushwick Book Club’s performance of My Monticello. Risa Mickenberg, editor of Hermette, described My Monticello as: “…[a] plumb line to the heart of America. It spreads the form of fiction out, softening it like clay, and with the touch of an artist, a lover, [Jocelyn] creates indelible, wholly original characters and stories.” The full interview may be watched here.
Balcones Fiction Prize
My Monticello won the Balcones Fiction Prize, which is awarded by the Balcones Center for Creative Writing at Austin Community College. Final judge, novelist Dalia Azim, described My Monticello as “diverse in voice and focus” with an “unforgettable” title novella. More information about the prize may be found here.
University of Virginia Visit
Jocelyn spoke to first years students at the University of Virginia, in a conversation with Jamelle Bouie that was moderated by English Professor Lisa Woolfork. Together, the three discussed My Monticello, which had been chosen as the common read for first-year students. Woolfork spoke to students about their civic duties and how it relates to My Monticello’s plot, telling them: “It is you all that are going to prevent the catastrophic future that Jocelyn has promised…I’m not being hyperbolic … there are strong, prophetic elements of her work.” Read more about the event here.
ABA Fall 2022 Reading Guide
The American Bookseller’s Association included My Monticello in its Fall 2022 Reading Group Guide, under the category of “small bites” for short stories and novellas. Calvin Crosby, co-owner of The King’s English Bookshop, called My Monticello a book that will “resonate long after you’ve finished” in the included blurb. You can read more and see the other reading guide titles here.
“les Recontres” Podcast Interview
Jocelyn was interviewed by author and critic, Erica Wagner, for the Rendez-vous littéraires rue Cambon (Literary Rendezvous at Rue Cambon), which is a series imagined by Charlotte Casiraghi, the House ambassador for CHANEL. Each episodes highlights an author and her writing journey. To learn more about the series, click here.
Women’s National Book Association Great Groups Reads
The Women’s National Book Association chose My Monticello as one of the books highlighted in their “great groups reads,” with the intent of compiling stories that “broaden understanding, foster empathy, and engender thoughtful consideration.” My Monticello is one of 20 chosen books, and the rest of the selections may be viewed here.
Finalist for the Library of Virginia’s 25th Annual Literary Awards
My Monticello was chosen as one of nine finalists in the Library of Virginia’s 25th Annual Literary Awards. An independent panel of judges chose the finalists from more than 108 submissions, and the winner in each category will be selected and announced during a gala at the Library of Virginia on Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022. More information can be found here.
My Monticello UK Paperback
The UK paperback of My Monticello came out on June 16th. Big thanks to everyone on the UK Team, Vintage Books, Harvill Secker and all the readers and booksellers. In stores now!
Selected as Route 1 Reads book for Virginia
My Monticello was chosen by the East Coast Center for the Book as this year’s Route 1 Reads novel. Each year, the Route 1 Reads initiative promotes books that embody important aspects and histories from each state along the famed Route 1 highway. Read more here.
New Orleans Review Interview
Jocelyn was interviewed by Breanna Henry for the New Orleans Review. Together, the two spoke about the inspiration for the short stories in My Monticello, the writing process, and fiction techniques, among other topics. The interview can be found here.
Winner of the 2022 Lillian Smith Book Award
My Monticello was chosen as the 2022 winner of the Lillian Smith Book Award, which celebrates literary and scholarly works dedicated to issues of social justice. My Monticello was honored alongside Traveling Back by historian Mia Bay. Previous award recipients include: Henry Louis Gates Jr., John Lewis, Tayari Jones, Eudora Welty, and Natasha Trethewey.
Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Debut Fiction
The Los Angeles Times Book Prizes are dedicated to discovering new voices and celebrating the highest quality of writing across the spectrum of book publishing. My Monticello is a finalist for The Art Seidenbaum Award for Debut Fiction.
Longlisted for The Story Prize
My Monticello was longlisted for The Story Prize, an annual book award honoring the author of an outstanding collection of short fiction with a $20,000 cash award.
Time Magazine: The 10 Best Fiction Books of 2021
“Jocelyn Nicole Johnson’s searing short-story collection is one to read in order. Its narratives dissect an American present that doesn’t feel at all removed from the country’s violent past, and they build to a brutal finish.”
The Cosmic Shambles Network Podcast
Jocelyn Nicole Johnson spoke with Robin Ince about My Monticello, Charlottesville, and the creative process on The Cosmic Shambles Network podcast. Click here to listen.
PEN / Faulkner 2022 Fiction Longlist
“In this time of trouble, literature remains one of our best tools for making sense of things,” said PEN/Faulkner Awards Committee Chair, Louis Bayard. “The ten titles chosen by our judges are an important reminder of why we keep reading.” Eugenia Kim, Rebecca Makkai, and Rion Amilcar Scott considered over 500 novels and short stories published in 2021 for this year’s longlist for the PEN / Faulkner awards, in which My Monticello was included.
Featured in NYT: It’s Never Too Late to Publish a Debut Book and Score a Netflix Deal
“Jocelyn Nicole Johnson, at 50, is not the average age of a debut author. But the public school teacher describes herself as a “literary debutante” with the October publication of ‘My Monticello.’ “
National Book Critics Circle Finalist
My Monticello has been named as a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Awards, among other wonderful debuts. Winners will be announced on March 17 via Wildbound Live at a virtual ceremony.
A Word on Words Interview with Alka Joshi
“In this story I wanted a young descendant, a Black descendent, of Monticello, and have her grappling with how she feels about her enslaved ancestors in the past. How she feels about her founding father great-great-great-great-grandfather; how she feels about that space.”
My Monticello selected as Sweet Briar’s 2022-23 Common Read
Sweet Briar English and creative writing professor Carrie Brown said she believes My Monticello will resonate with students at Sweet Briar on many levels. “Writers working on their first, serious stories and learning their craft, readers learning to see how fiction enlarges our understanding of people and events both distant and painfully nearby, young people everywhere trying to understand their place in the world and in history…all of them will find something meaningful in these stories.” Johnson will visit Sweet Briar in person on Thursday, October 6, 2022.
Audiobook: Listening to Complex Southern Stories
My Monticello is featured in a roundup on Audiofile Magazine, which calls it an exploring of “the ongoing weight of Southern history on the present—and the future. It’s a remarkable collection of stories, all set in Virginia. Each story is singular, though almost all of them focus on Black characters longing for home, or running from it, or trying to build it in an often violent and ruthless world.”
NBC Washington Interview: Spotlighting Black Authors
“The stories came to me between 2015 and 2020. I was really reacting to the world that we all are living in at that time and the things that were happening then and the things that are still continuing around equity, around our infrastructure, around our environment and how we were either going to resist or share power with one another…"
Fiction Winner of the Weatherford Award for Best Books about Appalachia
“The stories were engrossing . . . by the time I came to the last story I felt that all the themes about race and prejudice and poverty in the USA in general and Appalachia, in particular, had culminated into a clearer picture of what the author associated with Virginia and Monticello.”
PBS Interview: Write Around The Corner
“A masterful novella set in the near future…Tough minded, vulnerable, and brave. This book will pull you in.”
C-VILLE Weekly |Beautiful, Ugly Places: Three authors examine their Southern roots
“Southern landscapes can evoke images of magnolias, Spanish moss, or Billie Holiday’s strange fruit. Those perceptions of the South as a beautiful but benighted part of the country bring three Black writers with deep Southern roots to the Virginia Festival of the Book March 19…Charlottesville’s former mayor Nikuyah Walker and vice-mayor Holly Edwards both have referred to the city as a “beautiful ugly” place, which Reid says is something a lot of Black southerners understand. “I see beauty and ugliness,” says Reid. “It’s not one or the other.”
Interview on Good Morning America
“Jocelyn Nicole Johnson, a public school art teacher for more than two decades, followed her dream to write her book, "My Monticello," and also scored a movie deal.”
The Daily Progress | A Sense of Place: Virginia Festival of the Book at Home in Hybrid Universe
“I’m really interested in history as something really personal. What we remember; what we’re nostalgic for. What we fear; what we worry about. What we depend on, and what we’re responsible for…Who gets to tell the story? Who gets compassion? What do we want for the future, and how do we get there? In a way, it’s about a community coming together.”
The New Y0rker: Briefly Noted Book Reviews
“This formally experimental début story collection addresses the shadow of slavery in America.”
PBS Interview:Between the Covers
“When I made this fictional character, I really wanted to think about the ways in which people deal with their inheritance in different ways.”
This interview will also air on South Florida stations WXEL on March 18 at 5:30 PM ET and on WPBT on March 19 at 6:00 PM ET. Nationally, it will also air as part of a new season of “Between the Covers” in the summer or fall. You can watch the interview here and you can learn more about the interview here.
AARP:26 Works of Fiction to Read This Season
“Another finalist for this year’s Kirkus Prize, this debut collection of short stories that Colson Whitehead has called “electrifying” tackles issues of racial identity and racism in different settings and contexts.”
VPM:A Visit with Author Jocelyn Nicole Johnson
Jocelyn spoke with Charlottesville Inside-Out host and producer, Terri Allard, about being a writer in Charlottesville, the process behind her work, and what the experience of having My Monticello adapted into a movie has been like.
Grazia Book Club Review of My Monticello (UK version)
“This short novel has a hugely inventive premise that slides around from the present to the past. The author is like a butterfly, who alights upon an issue, draws out the nectar for her readers and then moves on, tying the story together with a very capable and assured hand. A future classic in the making, perhaps?”
Booklist Starred Audiobook Review of My Monticello
“All six stories in this stellar collection speak vividly about African American life. Each is performed—rather than simply read—by a talented actor and filled with credible accents and suitable drama…All are remarkable, but two stand out…”
Pause To Go Podcast, Season 2, Episode 2: On Community, Identity, and Writing, Part 1 and Part 2
“The reason I wrote the book was because I didn't know how to respond to August 12th and to these broader changes and steps backwards in my opinion that our country's making…” Click here for part 1 and here for part 2.
The Washington Post
“The standout novella in this debut collection follows a descendant of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, who takes shelter at Monticello from a white supremacist mob.”
People Magazine
Featured in the Best New Books section in People Magazine.
Virginia Living
“A few pages into reading Jocelyn Nicole Johnson’s debut, My Monticello, I found myself held by the mysteriousness of the opening story.”
The Daily Progress
“The collection includes five short stories and the novella, each of which explores burdened inheritances and extraordinary pursuits of belonging, according to the publisher.”
Lit Hub:The Ultimate Best Books
of 2021 List
My Monticello is featured in nine “Best of” book lists.
OTHERPPL with Brad Listi Episode .744
“I think there’s a way that, you know, I don’t separate myself out from him in that sense. I’m neither as brilliant nor as terrible him. But I do think that’s what people can do really well. Let’s put it this way: I can be terrible when it adds to my comfort.”
NPR: Maureen Corrigan’s 2021 Best Books list
“That novella is a rich, eerie riff on American mythology.”
The Guardian
“My Monticello is a bleak story but reading it elicits the same kind of sensation that comes from listening to a poignant blues song: there is pleasure in its creation without denying the pain of the subject.”
The Atlanta Journal Constitution
“The stories are a close study of the characters’ relationships to one another, the concept of home, the idea (real or imagined) of Virginia and all the hopes and promises America holds.”
KMUW - Wichita 89.1
“With this collection, Johnson clearly demonstrates a powerful new voice in American fiction. I can’t wait to read more.”
The Writer Files
“Critically-acclaimed debut author, Jocelyn Nicole Johnson, spoke to me about becoming a late-stage "literary debutante," Walmart militias, and the #writinglife as an introvert.”
The Pen Ten: An Interview with Jocelyn Nicole Johnson
“I think that the stories we are told, and the stories we tell ourselves, shape us in profound ways. They affect how we see ourselves and others, for good or for ill. They impact what we strive for, who we recognize as family, who we see as monsters, and where we call home. Stories can console us, or offer hope, in our despair.”
Literary Hub: The Best Reviewed Short Story Collections of 2021
“Jocelyn Nicole Johnson uses history to spectacular effect in her debut fiction collection … What makes My Monticello particularly resonant is that it does not stray far from life as we know it today.”
The Guardian
“The biggest challenge was thinking about the psychological and emotional costs of racism and extremism. It meant putting myself in the same mental space as my characters, being isolated and run out of home.”
Review in the Atlanta Journal Constitution
“A compilation of vivid, complex stories, at times reminiscent of works by Octavia Butler, Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison and Colson Whitehead, “My Monticello” is a startling, beautiful debut collection of short stories…”
BuzzFeed News: 32 Great Audio Books to Listen to Right Now
“All six stories in this collection deftly explore the Black experience in America, whether it’s the present or the future.”
Garden and Gun: Favorite Books of 2021
“By turns ferocious and funny, tender and terrifying, the stories show us Johnson’s native Virginia through the lens of oppression and belonging.”
Vinegar Hill Magazine Interview
“I knew this time was different from the past…”
The Rumpus
“This opening line of Jocelyn Nicole Johnson’s short story, “Virginia Is Not Your Home,” stands in stark contrast to the life of its author.”
Interview for Goodread: by Mateo Askaripour
“There’s a part of me that wants to keep them safe, but there’s a part of me that wants to put them out there. In a way, I feel a responsibility to do it, even though it’s a little scary.”
Electric Lit’s Favorite Short Story Collections of 2021
“Although set in the near future, Jocelyn Nicole Johnson’s debut collection, My Monticello, reminds readers that history is alive and well, particularly when it comes to people of color and the legacies from which they descend in America.”
Review by Maureen Corrigan on NPR’s Fresh Air
“The terrible tensions Johnson dramatizes so acutely in this extraordinary novella reflect those of the American project itself: the promise, captured in Jefferson's deathless words, of justice and freedom for all, smashed against the "little mountain" of his own racism and hypocrisy.”
Washington Post Book Review
“Jocelyn Nicole Johnson’s ‘My Monticello’ explores America’s racist past — and present — with grace”
Book Forum: Get Lit
“Johnson’s book is not an escape from our moment, but rather will make you feel more prepared for “the unraveling” or whatever may come.”
Guernica Mag Interview
“They don’t have to be perfect people, and they certainly aren’t. They don’t have to prove their worth; their existence and their humanity inside Monticello is enough. Those words are kind of an announcement that anything might happen — and that’s kind of all they have.”
NYT Book Review
Jocelyn Nicole Johnson Makes Virginia’s Past Present in ‘My Monticello.’
NPR Best Books 2021: Books We Love
“Each focuses on race, belonging and community and the question “To whom does American history belong?””
Essence
“Jocelyn Nicole Johnson, 50, is having her first book My Monticello is being adapted by Netflix.“
The Christian Science Monitor
“Jocelyn Nicole Johnson’s short-story collection aims its powerful beam on history’s proximity, racial trauma, and community survival.“
The San Diego Union-Tribune
“And that’s Johnson’s true gift to readers. Her almost effortless ability to take these familiar incidents and create something not only poetic and artful, but prescient and cathartic as well.”
Authorlink Interview
“Questions of belonging, home, and longing weave together the stories in My Monticello.”
The Millions - A Year in Reading: Jocelyn Nicole Johnson
“What I love about these stories in particular, and reading in general, is how precision and specificity can expose connection for me.”
Los Angeles Times
“So I am saying, “Look at what’s happening.” What we do matters, and if we pay attention in a different way, we can make something different happen.”
Film Adaptation
Chernin Entertainment is adapting the novella, MY MONTICELLO, for Netflix
Featured on With Good Reason
In 2017, many Americans watched in horror as violent images from the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville started spreading. A few short years later, My Monticello tells the story of Charlottesville neighbors fleeing racist violence and taking refuge in Thomas Jefferson’s home, Monticello. The author, Jocelyn Johnson, talks about what it means to be writing about a past and a future that both feel very present and whether there’s hope in writing about America’s racism.
Audio Book News
The voices of LeVar Burton, Aja Naomi King, Ngozi Anyanwu, January LaVoy, Tomiwa Edun, and Landon Woodson bring MY MONTICELLO to life.
Finalist for the 2021 Kirkus Prize
Kirkus announced the 18 finalists in three categories for the annual Kirkus Prize, one of the richest literary awards in the world.
New York Magazine
Shout out from Charles Yu.
Veranda
“These stories were one way I reacted to a series of recent real-life events, many of them public, communal, and painful, like the bloodying of a Black University of Virginia student in 2015, or the deadly White Nationalists Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville in 2017. But it was trying to write extremism and violent hatred, though not so hard as living through them and watching the suffering they caused. And so writing became a way for me to try to make sense of these difficult moments and to exert a kind of power. Through these stories, I hoped to share my heartache with readers, so that we might respond with care in concert. In that way, the writing of the book felt like a release.”
