Reading: July 19, Maple St. Book Shop

Maple Street Book Shop

7523 Maple St
New Orleans, LA 70118-5098
Phone: (504) 866-4916
1:00-2:30 PM
Saturday, July 19

Dedra Johnson will read from and discuss SANDRINE'S LETTER TO TOMORROW.

Trade Paper | 5.5 x 8 | 211 pages
ISBN: 978-09788431-2-0 | $14.95

"...the dialogue is fast and lively, and Sandrine's first-person narrative delivers immediate, searing drama."—Booklist

"[An] aching debut...[with] echoes of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings..." —Publisher's Weekly

"Reading Dedra Johnson's Sandrine's Letter to Tomorrow, I was fully in the presence of the mind, heart, and soul of a richly rendered, fascinating fictional character. I knew I was also in the presence of the brilliant voice and sensibility of a major new American writer. This is an important novel by a true artist."—Robert Olen Butler

"Dedra Johnson has caught something wonderful in Sandrine's Letter to Tomorrow. She writes brilliantly about childhood, New Orleans, the intricacies of a vexed family life. Sandrine is a remarkable debut novel that will catch your heart."—Frederick Barthelme

One Book, One New Orleans

Know a great New Orleans book? Think the whole city should read it? Then go suggest it at One Book, One New Orleans.

Help us select the book for the 2008 annual community-wide reading project! We’re now considering the book all of us will read together later this year.

We’re seeking a work that relates to our community at this moment and will inspire us in how we relate to each other.

Our past book selections have been A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines in 2004, Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America by John M. Barry in Spring 2005, and Coming Out the Door for the Ninth Ward by Nine Times Social and Pleasure Club in 2007.

All Over the Internets

I've been busy and too tired from being busy to post all the places I've been and still am on the Internets so here's the round-up:

Conversations Book Club interview at the Richard Wright public library:




AuthorViews interview at the NOLA Bookfair:




Carp(e) Libris review and book giveaway

Carp(e) Libris interview

Thanks, Diane, for reviewing my book, hosting the giveaway, and posting the interview. It was great fun. Next book, I'll do it all again.

And an oldie but goodie: Crystal K.'s interview on WTUL, part of the Katrina Warriors Network reading project: The Podcast

Thanks, Crystal. It was a lot of fun and when my life is less like a race to the grave, we should do it a 3rd time. With questions from listeners this time, yeah, like my friend Preston Allen is doing at his All or Nothing blog.

Conversations Book Club New Orleans: March 15!

Conversations Book Club in New Orleans will host authors C-Murder ("Death Around the Corner") and Dedra Johnson ("Sandrine's Letter to Tomorrow") at the Comfort Inn & Suites Downtown (356 Baronne St./ 504.524.1140) beginning at 1p.m. Admission is free.

For details, visit http://conversationsneworleans.blogspot.com or call 601.664.8805.

Review: Press-Register, March 2

It's an honor to be read like this.

A child at the crossroads Innocence, awareness intertwine in Dedra Johnson debut

Sandrine's first escape route comes through the books she reads voraciously, among them "Little House on the Prairie," "A Wrinkle in Time" and "Watership Down." She also reads biographies of Frederick Douglass, Mary McLeod Bethune and Harriet Tubman. She defines herself through the words of writers and the lives of historical icons, and she uses these lessons to find her own voice. In keeping with Tubman's example, Sandrine and her classmate Lydia, also an abuse victim, become an Underground Railroad for one another:

Lydia showed me how to hold keys in my hand with the points sticking out, a sharp fist to scratch, poke or punch with. I told her the back ways we took to school and she said I was smart, that she hadn't thought of it.

Johnson lets objects and moments tell their own stories when she shows the reader a blurred Polaroid of a mystery woman on the mantle and a jar of Mamalita's pomegranate jelly. She also writes of Catholic schoolchildren who wear their house keys like rosaries. Johnson skillfully lets these scenes breathe and keeps the reader within the present-tense moment. The effect pays off. There is no adult Sandrine looking back, putting her childhood in perspective. Johnson shows her protagonist in real time, the questions in her life still intact and unanswered.

In one scene, Sandrine and her classmates make papier-maché American flags to celebrate the Bicentennial. Perhaps this image captures the essence of "Sandrine's Letter to Tomorrow," the story of a young girl crafting her independence. To that end, Sandrine draws upon lessons learned from the kindnesses and cruelties she has encountered in her young life. In a powerful debut effort, Johnson shows us how these acts affect the lives of children.

Ravi Howard, Mobile Press-Register, March 2, 2008

March: NYC and Boston!

Grant Bailie and I will be reading together this month and in April. March dates:


Thursday, March 6, 7 PM--McNally Robinson, 52 Prince St. (between Lafayette and Mulberry), New York, NY 10012


Also Thursday, about 10-11 PM--

National Small Press Month Reading Marathon: Thursday, March 6, 2008 @ The Bowery Poetry Club:

7 pm to Midnight / $6

Eileen Myles (Wave Books), Noelle Kocot (Wave Books), Lynne Tillman (Soft Skull), Jen Benka (Soft Skull), Brenda Coultas (Coffee House Press), Ted Mathys (Coffee House Press), Alex Rose (Akashic Books), Camelia Entekhabifard (Seven Stories Press), Veronica Liu (Seven Stories Press), Martine Bellen (Belladonna Books), Lila Zemborain (Belladonna Books), Dan Machlin (Ugly Duckling Presse), Rachel Sherman (Open City Books), Leni Zumas (Open City Books), Sharon Mesmer (Hanging Loose Press), Marie Carter (Hanging Loose Press), Melissa Buzzeo (Leon Works), Tisa Bryant (Leon Works), Bob Holeman (Bowery Books), Paul Mills (Bowery Books), Radhiyah Ayobami (Bowery Books), Rachel Levitsky (Futurepoem Books), Erica Kaufman (Big Game Books), Corrine Fitzpatrick (Sona Books), Dedra Johnson (Ig Publishing), Grant Bailie (Ig Publishing), Camilla Trinchieri (Soho Press), Anne Landsman (Soho Press), Jason Schneiderman (Four Way Books), David Lawrence (Four Way Books).

For more information visit www.smallpressmonth.org or call 212.764.7021.

Friday, March 7, 7 PM--DIRE Reading Series, 106 Prospect St., Cambridge, MA

Needed: NO Prose, Poetry, Art

Blacklight, the journal of the Organization of Black Students at the University of Chicago, is seeking submissions for an upcoming New Orleans issue. The website has some outdated information (and a soundtrack--you have been warned) but you can contact Nabeel (current president and editor) directly at nabeel@uchicago.edu. Nabeel says he is looking for submissions that "deal somehow with New Orleans, geography, or space." Contact him for more info.

The deadline is mid-March.

Dillard: Reading, Book Signing, Reception

Dillard University
2601 Gentilly Blvd.
Stern Hall Amphitheater
Wednesday, February 27th, 2008
7:00 p.m.
Free & Open to the Public

Novelists Alice Wilson Fried & Dedra Johnson (me!)


Poets Valentine Pierce & Mona Lisa Saloy

Sponsored by Dillard University Lyceum, the Creative Writing program, and the Division of Humanities

picture of AWF from AWF's official website
picture of VP's book from Portal Press website
picture of MLS from www.architectureforhumanity.org

In Chicago? Need a Signed Copy?

Contact the NOLA in Chicago Network, a group formed after Katrina to help New Orleans expatriates and lovers support New Orleans. Your purchase through NOLA in Chicago will benefit Schools Count, a non-profit asking schools what they need and getting it for them! Check out their site at Schoolscountcorp.org.

For more information, email nolainchicago@yahoo.com.

Conversations Book Club New Orleans: POSTPONED!

I had a great time in MS this week, especially at Crystal Springs High School (details and pictures at Conversations Book Club). The book club today is canceled for a couple reasons, including the expected nasty weather, but I will be at the March Conversations Book Club-New Orleans. More details soon!

Thanks Cyrus and Robin and Martin! Can't wait to see you again! And thank you, thank you to Crystal Springs High School, Mr. Bradford (pictured) and Ms. Crisley!