Toni Ann Johnson's "But Where's Home?"

Send us Fan Mail This episode features our conversation with Toni Ann Johnson , which was live-streamed on February 15, 2026. Toni Ann Johnson won the Flannery O’Connor Award for her linked story collection, Light Skin Gone to Waste .

Selected for the prize and edited by Roxane Gay, the collection was also shortlisted for the Saroyan Prize and nominated for a 2023 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work. Her novella, Homegoing, published in 2021 and linked to Light Skin Gone to Waste, was selected by Katerina Stoykova as the winner of Accents Publishing’s inaugural novella contest.

Johnson’s newest linked collection, But Where’s Home? , the third book in the series about the Arrington family, was chosen by Crystal Wilkinson as the winner of the Screen Door Press Prize and published in February of 2026 (Screen Door Press is an imprint of University Press of Kentucky). During this episode, we talked about Toni Ann’s latest book, But Where’s Home? .

But Where's Home? , Toni Ann Johnson's new collection of linked short stories, explores the sometimes painful and often humorous experiences of the Airringtons as an upper-middle-class Black family in a predominantly white, working-class community. This book follows Johnson's previous collection, Light Skin Gone to Waste .

Through multiple perspectives and moments in time, 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 father practicing psychology while engaging in affairs with the white women of the town; and a mother dealing with infidelity while raising her daughters in a place that rejects them. Deeply emotional, funny, and unflinchingly honest, But Where's Home ? lays bare the realities of Black life in America, challenging readers to confront racism, classism, colonized thinking, narcissism, abuse, and troubled parent-child relationships.

Johnson's complex and interwoven characters create a kaleidoscope of truths about human nature and race relations in the United States. Purchase your copy of But Where's Home?: Find Toni Ann Johnson online: Listen to our first chat with Toni Ann Johnson from Season Three here .

Mentioned during the episode: Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals by Dr. Saidiya Hartman (2019): Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher Murray: Check out our interview with Victoria Christopher Murray about Harlem Rhapsody from Season Five: Find Toni Ann on Instagram: @treeladytoniann Find Black Writers Read on Instagram: @blackwritersread Find Black Writers Read online: Support Black Writers Read on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/blackwritersread Support the show