School of the Arts. And her love of different aspects led to a career path that took her on several journeys.

From acting, she developed an interest in scripts and how they were put together, Then she ventured into playwriting which led to screen writing and a move to Los Angeles. The move to LA and screenwriting provided a set up of lost control over her writing and a bad case of burnout. She went back to school and received her Masters in Fine Arts and began the journey as a writer.

“I felt I had lost my voice as a screenplay writer,” states Ms. Johnson. “It was difficult for me to have words put into my mouth through endless rewrites and I would say to these people no one would ever say that or act that way! In my literary career, I have much more control over my work.”

The change has been significant. In 2021 she won the Flannery O’Conner Award for short fiction with her linked collection Light Skin Gone to Waste. Her novella, Homecoming, was a semi-finalist for the William Faulkner Wisdom Award in fiction. It won Accents Publishing’s inaugural novella contest in 2020 and was released in May of 2021. Her new book, But Where’s Home? is a continuation of the Arrington’s story, an upper-middle-class African-American family living in a white, mostly working-class Upstate New York town.

With such a busy schedule, why sign on to judge first time writers in Kentucky? “I became involved through Accents Publishing and received an introduction to Larry (Managing Director Larry Pemble) at the Louisville Book Festival last November. Through that we discussed my involvement and I am very excited to get started.”

Toni Ann continues. “It could change someone’s life and give them the confidence needed to stick with a writing career. I’ll be looking for authenticity of voice, emotional honesty, and work that reveals the human condition through the characters’ trajectory.”

We are so excited to have Toni Ann on board with this year’s James Baker Hall Book Award. Make sure you watch for her new book coming out in February 2026, But Where’s Home, through Screen Door Press, a subsidiary of the University of Kentucky Press and edited by Kentucky’s own Crystal Wilkinson.