About this item
A masterful story collection - thirteen years in the making - from National Book Award winner Charles Johnson, showcasing the incredible range and resonant voice of this American treasure.This new collection of stories from National Book Award winner Charles Johnson offers an eclectic, engaging range of narratives, tied together by Buddhist themes and displaying all the grace, heart, and insight for which he has long been known. In "The Weave," Ieesha and her boyfriend carry out a heist at the salon from which she has just been fired - coming away with thousands of dollars of merchandise in the form of hair extensions. "Night Hawks," the titular story, draws on Johnson's friendship with the late playwright August Wilson to construct a narrative about two writers who meet at night to talk. In "Kamadhatu," a lonely Japanese abbot has his quiet world upended by a visit from a black American Buddhist whose presence pushes him toward the awakening he has long found elusive. "Occupying Arthur Whitfield," about a cab driver who decides to rob the home of a wealthy passenger, reminds readers to be grateful for what they have. And "The Night Belongs to Phoenix Jones" combines the real-life story of a "superhero" in the city of Seattle with an invented narrative about an aging English professor who decides to join him. Spanning genres from science fiction to realism, these stories convey messages of tolerance, hope, and gratitude. With precise, elegant, and moving language, Johnson creates memorable characters and real, human struggles that have the power to enlighten and change us as we read.
About the Author
Charles Johnson is the author of four novels Faith and the Good Thing (1974) , Oxherding Tale (1982) , Middle Passage (1990) , and Dreamer (Scribner, l998) ; three collection of short stories, The Sorcerer's Apprentice (1986) Soulcatcher and Other Stories (2001) , and Dr. King's Refrigerator and Other Bedtime Stories (2005) ; a work of aesthetics, Being and Race: Black Writing Since 1970 (1988) ; two collections of comic art, Black Humor (1970) and Half-Past Nation Time (1972) ; Black Men Speaking (1997) , co-edited with John McCluskey Jr.; Africans in America: America's Journey through Slavery, the companion book for PBS' series (Oct., l998) , co-authored with Patricia Smith (The Audio Book for this was selected as one of the best audio books in the History category of the Listen Up Awards in Publisher's Weekly) ; and King: The Photobiography of Martin Luther King Jr., (Viking Studio, 2000) , co-authored with Bob Adelman. These works have been translated into eight foreign languages. As a cartoonist and journalist in the early 1970s, he published over 1000 drawings in national publications, a selection of which appears in Humor Me: An Anthology of Humor by Writers of Color by John McNally (University of Iowa, 2002) . In l999 Indiana University Press published a collection of his essays on aesthetics, cultural criticism, articles, interviews, speeches, cartoons, out-takes from his novels and book reviews dating back to 1965, entitled, I Call Myself an Artist: Writings By and About Charles Johnson (April, l999) a "Charles Johnson reader," edited by Dr. Rudolph Byrd, with a final section of eight critical articles on his work. Turning the Wheel: Essays on Buddhism and Writing (Scribner) was published in 2003. The University of Washington Press published Passing the Three Gates: Interviews with Charles Johnson, edited by Dr. James McWilliams, a collection of interviews dating back to 1978, in 2004. In 2005, Scribner published a new edition of Oxherding Tale. In 2007, Johnson co-authored with Bob Adelman Mine Eyes Have Seen: Bearing Witness to the Struggle for Civil Rights (Time-Life Books) , and in 2008 Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr: 40 Years Later, His Life and Crusade in Pictures (Time/Life Books) ; and his comic art appeared in The Writer's Brush: Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture by Writers, edited by Donald Friedman. In 2010, he co-authored with Michael Boylan Philosophy, An Innovative Introduction: Fiction Narrative, Primary Texts and Responsive Writing (Westview Press) .Johnson, a Ph.D. in Philosophy, l998 MacArthur fellow and 2002 recipient of an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Literature, received the 1990 National Book Award for Middle Passage (he was the first African-American male to win this prize since Ralph Ellison in 1953) . Oxherding Tale was awarded the 1983 Washington State Govenor's Award for Literature; Sorcerer's Apprentice was one of five finalists for the 1987
