A. Rafael Johnson

Voodoo or vodun ingredients for an dark ritual, witchcraft and african religion, talisman, incense, crow´s feet and gems

A. Rafael Johnson

Author

I am my haint. I haunt my own body.

About me

A. Rafael Johnson is a writer, educator, consultant, public speaker, and the author of The Through, finalist for the 2018 Minnesota Book Award, and co-author of Creative Evaluation & Engagement: Essentials. A Kimbilio Fellow, his newest story Morrison's Note questions the nature of our shared reality through metafiction. Johnson is working on a sequel to The Through entitled Follow The Sun.

A. Rafael Johnson teaches creative writing at The University of Nebraska at Omaha MFA program and the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Johnson co-owns Inspire to Change, a consulting firm. He is based in Minneapolis.

NEWS

My new story I, Marlon James, or Marlon James and the Unidentified Body won honorable mention in the 2024 Writer’s Digest contest. Thank you to the judges and everyone who supports my work. I’ll post a link here once its published.

I’m doing a reading! This will be my first public reading since my recovery. Catch me at Readings By Writers on September 17 at the University Club of St. Paul.

Crime Scene with Chalk Outline of Human Body, Blood, Bullet Shel

write with me

Ever want to write a novel but didn’t know how to start? Have a half finished novel sitting on your computer? LI’m teaching a four-class workshop called NaNoWriMo: The Ins and Outs of Writing a Successful Novel. Join me.

Every November, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) challenges new and experienced writers to draft an entire novel in one month. Now a global community of writers, NaNoWriMo launched the careers of Sara Gruen (Water for Elephants), Emily X.R. Pan (The Astonishing Color of After), Erin Morgenstern (The Night Circus), and others debut authors.

Sponsored by More than A Single Story and Hennepin County Libraries, this workshop is intended for all writers at any stage of their career. Teens welcome. While this class is intended for contemporary fiction, our discussions and exercises will apply to YA, nonfiction, screenwriting, and other narrative genres. Registration info coming soon.

Sample

from The Through.

Adrian developed too early. Men began to notice her when she turned ten and still played with dolls. Adrian took a pair of rounded school scissors and cut the curly hair off her black Barbie.

“You nappy headed,” she declared. “You so ugly.”

Adrian spent a week painstakingly weaving straight blonde hair into the dolls short locks, but the plastic wouldn’t hold. The hair fell off. She tried to glue the hair straight onto the doll’s head, but dry glue drips made the doll even uglier, deformed from a hidden cancer bubbling to the surface. Adrian threw the doll into the back of her bedroom closet but couldn’t sleep, so she moved the doll under her bed and stayed up all night thinking about her, then finally buried the doll in her backyard under the shade of her mother’s banana leaf palm in lower New Orleans, dirty, crying, scratching the dirt of her mother’s garden with a cheap trowel. A man noticed her.

Available from Jaded Ibis Press, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and your local bookseller

Previous work

“"Morrison's Note." Temenos Journal, 2022.

Creative Evaluation and Engagement: Essentials. KDP, 2020.

"The Gena Child”. Spacecraft Projects, 2020.

"The Boy Who Climbed His Mother into Heaven." Spacecraft Projects, 2020.

The Through. Jaded Ibis Press, 2017.

"Wince: George and Trayvon." in Lunch Ticket, 2012. Anthologized in Excavating Honesty: An Anthology of Hope and Rage In America. Paper Nautilus Press, 2017.

"Celosia." The Pen Is Mightier. Vol. 1. Tuscaloosa: Slash Pine Press, 2014.

"Bell and Cut Mary Somewhere in the Sugarcane." African American Review 46.4 (2014): 768-70.

"Tuscaloosa, Tuscaloosa." The Pen Is Mightier. Vol. 1. Tuscaloosa: Slash Pine Press, 2014.

"Race and the Avatar." Tuscaloosa Writes This. Ed. Patti White and Brian Oliu. Tuscaloosa: Slash Pine Press, 2013.

"Sweet Smell of Success." Liver of Dixie: An Egan's Anthology. Tuscaloosa: Broken Futon Press, 2013.

"The Big Bobby Wilkerson." Echolocation 12 (2012).

Yes We Can: Locally Generated Reading Materials. United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Monrovia, Liberia, 2011.

Cuttington Anthology of Liberian Literature. Vol. 1. Suakoko: Cuttington UP, 2011.

Black Warrior Review 34.3. 2009.

Fairy Tale Review: The White Issue. 2008.

Fairy Tale Review: The Violet Issue. 2007.

“Tamara Hoover Returns.” Whorizontal for Whoospy! Magazine. Holt Publications, 2007.

“Jac.” Whorizontal for Whoospy! Magazine. Holt Publications, 2007.

“Grupo Fantasma.” Whorizontal for Whoospy! Magazine. Holt Publications, 2007.

“Foxxies.” Whorizontal for Whoospy! Magazine. Holt Publications, 2007.

“Dr. Natasha.” Whorizontal for Whoospy! Magazine. Holt Publications, 2007.

“HUG Dancers.” Whorizontal for Whoospy! Magazine. Holt Publications, 2006.

Where ya been?

Over the past ten or so years, I’ve been fairly prolific. In addition to writing fiction, I regularly present at conferences, write for Inspire to Change, and teach workshops.

At least, I used to. So what happened?

In March 2023, I was diagnosed with heart failure (non-ischemic cardiomyopathy). I didn’t respond to the standard treatment, and was given 5-10 years to live. Our hope was that we’d find a clinical trial or get me onto the transplant list. Given the prognosis, I decided to focus on my current manuscript and hold off on any public appearances, workshops, or consulting.

And then one day, I saw my cardiologist and she had wonderful news: my heart was repairing itself. What changed, why now, we don’t know. But the good news is that I I’m writing more as my strength and endurance returns.

Shout outs

Seeing students, friends, and colleagues succeed brings a special kind of happiness. Check out these new books.

Interviews

Fiction and Writing

The Slowdown Show, episode 1050: To the Woman Crying Uncontrollably in the Next Stall.

Short Story Today: Episode #15 - Morrison's Note (audio)

Black Market Reads: Minnesota Book Award Finalist A. Rafael Johnson on trauma, memory, and magical realism (audio)

Minnesota Book Awards 36 Finalists Blog: A. Rafael Johnson (text)

Black Market Reads: Remembering Toni Morrison at the 2019 Twin Cities Book Festival (audio)

TwinCities.com / St. Paul Pioneer Press: The Through is a magical read infused with the idea of Africa. (text)

A. Rafael Johnson: The TNB Self-Interview (text)

The Loft Podcast: Fairy Tales #2: Minotaur Missives, Dreadful Young Ladies, and Magic as Realism (audio)