T. Geronimo Johnson

T. Geronimo Johnson is an American novelist and professor whose fiction addresses race, class, and American identity with formal ambition and satirical power. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, he is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and a former Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. His second novel, Welcome to Braggsville (2015), was named by Time magazine as one of the ten best books of the year and received widespread critical attention. It follows four college students—members of the College of Diversity in Action (CODA)—who organize a Civil War reenactment that goes tragically wrong in the small town of Braggsville, Georgia. Johnson won the inaugural Joyce Carol Oates Prize in 2017. His debut novel, Hold It 'Til It Hurts (2012), was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. He has been shortlisted for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and received the Saroyan Prize and the Ernest J. Gaines Award. Johnson has taught at UC Berkeley, Stanford, Iowa, Oregon State, and other institutions. He served as a judge for the 2016 National Book Award. His work is known for its use of vernacular voices, its engagement with American race history, and its tragicomic vision.