Mat Johnson

{{Infobox writer

| name = Mat Johnson

| image = Mat johnson 2011.jpg

| imagesize = 200px

| caption = Johnson at the 2011 Texas Book Festival

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1970|08|19}}

| birth_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.

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| occupation =

| nationality = American

| citizenship =

| education = Greene Street Friends School
West Chester University
University of Wales, Swansea

| alma_mater = Earlham College (BA)
Columbia University School of the Arts (MFA)

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| notableworks = Pym (2011)
Incognegro (2008)
Loving Day (2015)

| spouse =

| partner =

| children =

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| signature =

| website = {{URL|MatJohnson.info}}

| portaldisp =

}}

Mat Johnson (born August 19, 1970, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American fiction writer who works in both prose and the comics format. In 2007, he was named the first USA James Baldwin Fellow by United States Artists.{{Cite web |title=United States Artists » Mat Johnson |url=https://www.unitedstatesartists.org/fellow/mat-johnson/ |access-date=2024-03-03 |language=en-US |archive-date=March 3, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240303022752/https://www.unitedstatesartists.org/fellow/mat-johnson/ |url-status=live }}

Life and career

Johnson was born and raised in the Germantown and Mount Airy communities in PhiladelphiaGross, Terry. “Writer Mat Johnson On 'Loving Day' And Life As A 'Black Boy' Who Looks White” Fresh Air, NPR, 29 June. 2015, https://www.npr.org/2016/09/16/494234198/writer-mat-johnson-on-loving-day-and-life-as-a-black-boy-who-looks-white {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231119103534/https://www.npr.org/2016/09/16/494234198/writer-mat-johnson-on-loving-day-and-life-as-a-black-boy-who-looks-white |date=November 19, 2023 }}

His mother is African-American and his father is Irish Catholic. Johnson attended Abington Friends School,{{Cite web |last=Shengold |first=Nina |title=Harlem Renaissance Man |url=https://www.chronogram.com/arts/harlem-renaissance-man-2171959 |access-date=2024-03-03 |website=Chronogram Magazine |language=en |archive-date=March 3, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240303022753/https://www.chronogram.com/arts/harlem-renaissance-man-2171959 |url-status=live }} Greene Street Friends School, West Chester University, University of Wales, Swansea, and ultimately received his B.A. from Earlham College. In 1993 he was awarded a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. Johnson received his M.F.A. from Columbia University School of the Arts in 1999.{{Cite web |title=Mat Johnson {{!}} Creative Writing Program |url=https://crwr.uoregon.edu/people/johnson-2/ |access-date=August 30, 2022 |website=crwr.uoregon.edu |archive-date=September 20, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220920204337/https://crwr.uoregon.edu/people/johnson-2/ |url-status=live }}

Johnson has taught at Rutgers University, Columbia University, Bard College, and The Callaloo Journal Writers Retreat. He was a faculty member at the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. He is currently a professor at the University of Oregon's Creative Writing Program.{{Cite web |title=Mat Johnson {{!}} Creative Writing Program |url=https://crwr.uoregon.edu/people/johnson-2/ |access-date=2024-03-03 |website=crwr.uoregon.edu |archive-date=September 20, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220920204337/https://crwr.uoregon.edu/people/johnson-2/ |url-status=live }}

Johnson's first novel, Drop (2000), was a coming-of-age novel about a self-hating Philadelphian who thinks he has found his escape when he takes a job at a Brixton-based advertising agency in London, UK. The work was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection; Interview magazine named Johnson as a "Writer on the Verge"; and Drop was listed among "Best Novels of the Year" by Progressive Magazine.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}

In 2003, Johnson published Hunting in Harlem (2003), a satire about gentrification in Harlem and an exploration of belief versus fanaticism. Hunting in Harlem won the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Legacy Award for Novel of the Year in 2004.{{Cite web |title=Legacy Awards |url=https://www.hurstonwright.org/awards/legacy-awards/ |access-date=2024-03-03 |website=Hurston/Wright Foundation |language=en-US |archive-date=December 7, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207180636/https://www.hurstonwright.org/awards/legacy-awards/ |url-status=live }}

Johnson made his first move into the comics form with the publication of the five-issue limited series Hellblazer Special: Papa Midnite (Vertigo 2005), where he took an existing character of the Hellblazer franchise and created an origin story that strove to offer depth and dignity to a character who was arguably a racial stereotype of the noble savage. The work was set in 18th-century Manhattan, and was based on the research that Johnson was conducting for his first historical work, The Great Negro Plot.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}

The Great Negro Plot is a creative nonfiction that recounts the New York Slave Insurrection of 1741 and the resultant trial and hysteria.[http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=4547 Johnson Tells the Unknown Origin of "Hellblazer's" Papa Midnite in New Mini] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303205402/http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=4547 |date=March 3, 2016 }}, Comic Book Resources, February 2, 2005.

In February 2008, Vertigo Comics published Johnson's graphic novel Incognegro, a noir mystery that deals with the issue of passing and the lynching past of the American South. The work is illustrated by British artist Warren Pleece with cover artwork by Stephen John Phillips.[http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=137901 Mat Johnson on Incognegro]{{dead link|date=January 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, newsarama.com, November 29, 2007.

From 2006 to 2007, Johnson wrote the blog Niggerati Manor, which discussed African-American literature and culture.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}

Awards

In 2004, Johnson's Hunting in Harlem won the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award.{{Cite web |title=The Hurston/Wright Legacy Award |url=https://aalbc.com/books/hw-award-winning-books.php |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230331061640/https://aalbc.com/books/hw-award-winning-books.php |archive-date=March 31, 2023 |access-date=2024-04-29 |website=African American Literature Book Club |language=en}}

Johnson was named a 2007 USA James Baldwin Fellow"About the Artists & Writers," African-American Classics, Graphic Classics vol. 22 (Eureka Productions, 2011). and awarded a $50,000 grant by United States Artists, a public charity that supports and promotes the work of American artists. On September 21, 2011, Johnson was awarded the Dos Passos Prize for Literature for his body of work focused on American themes and the human experience.Emery, Mike. [http://www.uh.edu/news-events/stories/2011articles/Sept2011/0912DosPassos.php "2011 DOS PASSOS PRIZE AWARDED TO UH PROFESSOR MAT JOHNSON: AWARD RECOGNIZES AUTHORS WITH WORKS FOCUSED ON AMERICAN THEMES, HUMAN EXPERIENCE"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111011091739/http://www.uh.edu/news-events/stories/2011articles/Sept2011/0912DosPassos.php |date=October 11, 2011 }}, University of Houston website (September 12, 2011).

Works

= Comics =

Hellblazer Special: Papa Midnite (Vertigo, 5-issue limited series, 2005; tpb, 2006, {{ISBN|1-4012-1003-1}})
Incognegro (Vertigo, graphic novel, 2008, hardcover, {{ISBN|1-4012-1097-X}})
Dark Rain: A New Orleans Story{{cite web |last=Staff |date=August 9, 2010 |title=Dark Rain: A New Orleans Story |url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/book-news/comics/article/44126-comics-reviews-8-9-10-.html |accessdate=September 12, 2012 |work=Publishers Weekly |archive-date=August 22, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100822112647/http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/book-news/comics/article/44126-comics-reviews-8-9-10-.html |url-status=live }} (Vertigo, graphic novel, 2010, 160 pages, {{ISBN|978-1-4012-2160-7}})
Right State{{cite web |last=Gallaher |first=Valerie |date=August 8, 2012 |title=Review: Vertigo's 'Right State' A Tense And Topical Thriller Pulled Straight From The Headlines |url=http://geek-news.mtv.com/2012/08/08/right-state-vertigo-review |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130127041135/http://geek-news.mtv.com/2012/08/08/right-state-vertigo-review |archive-date=January 27, 2013 |accessdate=September 12, 2012 |work=MTV Geek}} (Vertigo, graphic novel, 2012, 144 pages, {{ISBN|1-4012-2943-3}})
Incognegro: Renaissance{{Cite web |last=Alverson |first=Brigid |date=2018-01-15 |title=Racial Drama Incognegro Returns with New Edition, Prequel Miniseries |url=https://www.cbr.com/incognegro-renaissance-mat-johnson-warren-pleece-interview/ |access-date=2024-03-03 |website=CBR |language=en |archive-date=January 29, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210129230820/https://www.cbr.com/incognegro-renaissance-mat-johnson-warren-pleece-interview/ |url-status=live }} (Vertigo, graphic novel, 2018, 128 pages, {{ISBN|978-1506705637}})
Backflash (Berger Books, graphic novel, 2024, 104 pages, {{ISBN|9781506745107}})

= Novels =

Drop (Bloomsbury USA, 2000)
Hunting in Harlem (Bloomsbury USA, 2003)
Pym (Random/Spiegel & Grau, 2011)
Loving Day (Spiegel & Grau, 2015)
Invisible Things (One World, 2022)

= Nonfiction =

The Great Negro Plot (Bloomsbury USA, 2007)

= Anthologies =

Gumbo: Anthology of African American Literature (Harlem Moon, 2002)
Not Guilty: Twelve Black Men Speak Out on Law, Justice, and Life (Amistad Press, 2002)
Mixed: An Anthology of Short Fiction on the Multiracial Experience (W. W. Norton, 2006)
Black Cool: One Thousand Streams of Blackness (Soft Skull Press, February 2012)Staff (December 12, 2011). [http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-59376-417-3 "Black Cool: One Thousand Streams of Blackness] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120214001621/http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-59376-417-3 |date=February 14, 2012 }}. Edited by Rebecca Walker.", Publishers Weekly.Staff (December 15, 2011). [http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/fiction/mat-johnson/pym/ "BLACK COOL – A collection of essays focused on the "cool" cultural legacy of African-Americans."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110713154020/http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/fiction/mat-johnson/pym/ |date=July 13, 2011 }}, Kirkus Reviews.

References

External links

{{official website|http://www.matjohnson.info}}
[https://web.archive.org/web/20160303172738/http://www.nathanielturner.com/coalcharcoalandchocolatecomedy.htm Literary Criticism of Hunting in Harlem]
[http://www.chronogram.com/issue/2007/2/Books/Harlem-Renaissance-Man Profile of Mat Johnson]
[https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7236322 "'Great Negro Plot' Tells of Manhattan on the Edge"], News and Notes, National Public Radio, February 7, 2007. (Links to RealPlayer or Windows Media Audio)
[https://web.archive.org/web/20070309145721/http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/episodes/2007/02/28 "Rumors of a Slave Revolt"], Leonard Lopate Show, WNYC, February 28, 2007. (Links to MP3 audio)
[https://web.archive.org/web/20071120133136/http://www.unitedstatesartists.org/Public/USAFellows2007/USAFellows2007/MatJohnson/index.cfm Mat Johnson's United States Artist Page ]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20110728144753/http://www.unitedstatesartists.org/Public/USADonors/USANationalLeadershipCommittee/JamesBaldwin/index.cfm James Baldwin Foundation Fellows 2007]
[http://www.unitedstatesartists.org United States Artists Arts Advocacy Organization.]