Biography of Charles Johnson from the College of Charleston Convocation Committee Dr. Charles Johnson (b. 1948 in Evanston, Illinois) is a professor at the University of Washington, a scholar of African-American literature and 1998 MacArthur Fellow. He is the author of four popular and critically acclaimed novels: Faith and the Good Thing (1974), Oxherding Tale (1982), Middle Passage (winner of the 1990 National Book Award), and Dreamer (1998). His collection of short stories, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (1986), was one of five finalists for the 1987 PEN/Faulkner Award. As a journalist and political cartoonist in the 1970s, Johnson published over 1000 drawings in national publications. He has written over 20 screenplays, including Booker (about Booker T. Washington), which received the international Prix Jeunesse Award and a 1985 Writers Guild Award. The option for a film version of his novel Dreamer (a fictionalized account of the last days of Martin Luther King, Jr.) was recently granted to actor Jon Voight. His work has been the subject of special sessions of the Modern Language Association (1991 & 1996), the International Association for Philosophy and Literature (2000 & 2001), the winter 1997 issue of African-American Review, and at least three critical books published or forthcoming. In 2002, the American Academy of Arts and Letters presented Johnson with its Academy Award for Literature.

Home: Background on Middle Passage In the words of Charles Johnson... Biography A few notes on the author's life In the author's words... Quotations from various published interviews with Johnson Travis Ferrell on Middle Passage A position paper submitted to Dr. Frazier.. Heidi Bradley on Middle Passage A position paper submitted to Dr. Frazier.. Rebecca Pitts on Middle Passage A position paper submitted to Dr. Frazier.. Jude Morris on Middle Passage A position paper submitted to Dr. Frazier.. Previous Issues