Dianne Johnson

Professor
Office: 507 Humanities Office Building
803) 777-2345
dianne@sc.edu

Education

Ph.D., Yale University, 1988

Specialization Areas

• Creative Writing,
• Children's Literature,
• Film

Recent Courses

See Course Descriptions for detailed information.

• ENGL 650C Reading and Writing Children's Literature

Current Research Project(s)

My primary research interest is African American children's literature; my project has been to recover this literature and its history. In addition, it is important that black children's literature be accorded a certain legitimacy, for lack of a better word, in the larger body of African American literature. To this end, it is meaningful that there is an entry on children's and young literature in the Oxford Companion to African American Literature. And it was quite gratifying to edit, along with Catherine Lewis, a special issue of African American Review (spring 1998) devoted to black children's literature and illustration. Another project which I'm very proud of is The Best of the Brownies' Book (Oxford 1996), selections taken from a black children's magazine edited by Jessie Fauset and W.E.B. DuBois in 1920-1921. It includes, folklore, poetry, biographies, fiction, photographs, current events, letters from young readers, and more. I'm interested, as well, in multicultural children's literature. It was thrilling to get to know and write about the celebrated Chinese American writer Laurence Yep in Presenting Laurence Yep (Twayne 1995).

As “Dinah Johnson” I am a writer of children’s literature. I enjoy doing schools visits to share my books All Around Town: The Photographs of Richard Samuel Roberts, Sunday Week, Quinnie Blue, and Sitting Pretty: A Celebration of Black Dolls.  I have three books forthcoming: Tom Feelings, My Daddy (Third World Press); Black Magic (Henry Holt); and Hair Dance (Henry Holt). Please enjoy my website at www.dinahjohnson.com.

Publications

Editor of The Collected Works of Langston Hughes, Volume 11: The Works for Children. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 2003.

Editor (with Catherine Lewis), African American Review, Vol. 32, no.1, (Spring 1998 special issue on African American Children's Literature).

The Best of The Brownies' Book, ed. NY: Oxford University Press, 1996. (A Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies for 1997 awarded by the Children's Book Council/NCSS)

Presenting Laurence Yep. NY: Twayne Publishers, 1995. (Part of their series on authors of young adult literature).

Telling Tales: The Pedagogy and Promise of African American Literature for Youth. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1990.

Children's Books

(under the name Dinah Johnson)

All Around Town: The Photographs of Richard Samuel Roberts. NY: Henry Holt Books for Young Readers, 1998.

Sunday Week, illustrated by Tyrone Geter. NY: Henry Holt Books for Young Readers, 1999.

Quinnie Blue, illustrated by James Ransome. NY: Henry Holt Books for Young Readers, 2000.

Sitting Pretty: A Celebration of Black Dolls, photography by Myles Pinkney. NY: Henry Holt, 2000.