UNO Alumna, Author Barb Johnson Wins $50,000 Grant
5/26/2009
(May 26, 2009, New Orleans, La.) - Just five years after she "retooled" her life, University of New Orleans alumna Barb Johnson is well on her way to publishing her second book. Johnson, a 2008 graduate of the Creative Writing Workshop, UNO's MFA in creative writing program, has won the fifth Gift of Freedom Award from A Room of Her Own Foundation, a two-year, $50,000 grant to provide support while she pens her next project, a novel.
Johnson's collection of short stories, More of This World or Maybe Another, which served as her master's thesis will be published by Harper Collins in the fall. Many of the stories in the book are set in the Mid-City neighborhood in which Johnson lives.
In 2004 Johnson, who had been living and working as a skilled carpenter in New Orleans for years, was looking to swap her hammer for a laptop. She was determined to leave town and had applied and been accepted to several graduate writing programs. After comparing what those schools had to offer with the program in her own backyard, the Creative Writing Workshop at UNO where she had previously earned a bachelor's in English, she decided to stay put.
A year later, Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters swept away Johnson's carpentry tools and furthered her commitment to writing. The UNO Creative Writing Workshop provided Johnson with the creative environment she needed to succeed. She found the faculty to be extremely available and supportive, and also learned from fellow CWW students and graduates.
"I learned both to read carefully and write better," Johnson said. Without it, "it would have taken me another 20 years to get to this level. It speeds up the learning curve."
"Barb Johnson represents the very best of our graduate program: a wise observer of human nature, armed with keen insight; a lover of the written word, with a true appreciation for her craft; a Louisiana native, with deep connection to place; and above all, a writer with the gift of fresh imagination, subtle irony, and lyrical language," said Joanna Leake, professor of English and director of the UNO Creative Writing Workshop. "Reading her work is pure pleasure."
"Barb Johnson is also a fine writer of nonfiction; a finalist for the Samuel Mockbee Award in Nonfiction in 2008," said Randy Bates, associate professor of English. "She was a wonderful workshop colleague for her fellow MFA writers at UNO: deeply discerning, supportively humorous, and always entirely humane."
As a graduate student, Johnson won the Robert F. Gibbons Award, the Svenson Award for Fiction, the Gulf Coast Teachers of Creative Writing Award, Glimmer Train's Short Story Award for New Writers, and a grant from the Astraea Foundation.
The University of New Orleans (UNO), the urban research University of the State of Louisiana, provides essential support for the educational, economic, cultural and social well-being of the culturally rich and diverse New Orleans metropolitan area. It opened its doors in 1958 as part of the Louisiana State University System "to bring public-supported higher education to Louisiana's largest urban community." Today, UNO offers 43 undergraduate degree programs, 37 masters, and 11 doctoral programs. The 340-acre main campus sits on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain, offering easy access to all parts of the metro area. For more information, visit http://www.uno.edu/.
Johanna M. Schindler
Director of Public Relations
(504) 280-6939
Fax (504) 280-1080
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