T. Geronimo Johnson

Faculty, MFA in Writing [fiction] [on leave of absence]

Profile

Filmmaker and novelist T. Geronimo Johnson was born in New Orleans. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a former Stegner Fellow at Stanford, Johnson has taught writing at UC Berkeley, Stanford, the Writers’ Workshop, the Prague Summer Program, Oregon State University, San Quentin, Texas State, and elsewhere. He has worked on, at, or in brokerages, kitchens, construction sites, phone rooms, education non-profits, writing centers, summer camps, ladies shoe stores, nightclubs, law firms, offset print shops, and a (pre-2016) political campaign that shall remain unnamed.

He also wrote a couple of novels that have—between the two—been selected by the Wall Street Journal Book Club, named a 2013 PEN/Faulkner Award finalist, shortlisted for the 2016 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, longlisted for the National Book Award, longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, named a finalist for The Bridge Book Award, named a finalist for the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award, adapted into a critically acclaimed play, included on Time Magazine’s list of the top ten books of 2015, awarded the Saroyan International Prize for Writing, and named the winner of the 2015 Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence. Johnson was also a National Book Award judge in 2016, the recipient of the inaugural Simpson Family Literary Prize in 2017, and a 2017-2018 Rome Prize Fellow. MANIFEST DESTINY JESUS, a documentary, will be released in 2021. His author photo is 4 or 5 years old. Learn more at his website.

Contact

[email protected]

Education

ABD - Language, Literacy & Culture | Graduate School of Education, UC Berkeley

MFA - Poetry | Iowa Writers' Workshop

MA - Language, Literacy & Culture | UC Berkeley

BA - Philosophy & Religious Studies | Oglethorpe University

Sue William Silverman

Faculty Co-chair, MFA in Writing [CNF/hybrid forms]; Postgraduate Writers' Conference

Ellen Lesser

Faculty, MFA in Writing [fiction]; Director, Postgraduate Writers' Conference

Adam McOmber

Faculty Co-chair, MFA in Writing [fiction/hybrid forms]; Editor in Chief, Hunger Mountain Review

Bret Lott

Faculty, MFA in Writing [fiction/CNF]

Miciah Bay Gault

Faculty, MFA in Writing [fiction]; Novel Retreat

Clifford Thompson

Faculty, MFA in Writing [CNF/ hybrid forms]; Postgraduate Writers' Conference