Listen "Author Dana A. Williams on what Toni Morrison can teach us about editing"
Episode Synopsis
Storyboard contributor Christina M. Tapper sits down with Dana A. Williams, author of the new book “Toni at Random: The Iconic Writer’s Legendary Editorship,” for a conversation about Toni Morrison and her work as a trade editor at Random House, where she championed Black writers working in all genres and ultimately changed the publishing landscape. The book is the first to focus solely on the Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer’s editing career, and it offers previously untold stories about Morrison's work and insights into the editor-writer relationship. Morrison edited more than 50 books, including works by Toni Cade Bambara, Lucille Clifton, Huey P. Newton, Leon Forrest, Gayl Jones, Angela Davis, and Muhammad Ali. She even edited a cookbook. Morrison died in 2019 at age 88. Williams, professor of African American Literature and dean of the Graduate School at Howard University, had Morrison's blessing to write the book and the privilege of interviewing her, and also conducted research in Morrison's archives at Princeton University and Random House's archives at Columbia University. Get the Nieman Storyboard newsletter: https://niemanstoryboard.org/about/subscribe-to-nieman-storyboard/Show creditsHosted and produced by Mark ArmstrongEpisode producer and interview by Christina M. TapperEpisode editor: Kelly ArajaAudience editor: Adriana LacyPromotional support: Ellen TuttleOperational support: Paul Plutnicki, Peter CanovaNieman Foundation interim curator: Henry ChuMusic: “Golden Grass,” by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue)Cover design by Adriana LacyNieman Storyboard is presented by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard.
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