01/21/2026
We’re happy to announce our first virtual event of the year, in collaboration with . Join in conversation with celebrated author Toni Ann Johnson about her newest book title “But, Where’s Home?” February 12 at 8PM EST, 5PM PST. Register for the event using the link in our bio or by visiting our website at www.commabookstore.com . You can pre-order your book now by going to our bookshop.org storefront.
But Where’s Home by Toni Ann Johnson. Winner of the 2024 Screen Door Press Fiction Prize, the book follows Johnson’s previous collection, Light Skin Gone to Waste, a 2023 NAACP Image Award nominee for Outstanding Literary Work and winner of the 2021 Flannery O’Connor Award.
Deeply emotional, funny, and unflinchingly honest, But Where’s Home? lays bare the realities of Black life in America, challenging readers to confront issues of racism and classism as well as narcissistic abuse and parent-child relationships.
The Arringtons are an affluent Black family residing in a picturesque, predominantly white town. Through multiple perspectives that span from the 1960s to 2022, readers are invited into the sometimes painful and often humorous lives of the Arringtons. The daughters, Livia and Maddie, must find ways to survive their narcissistic parents. Their father, a practicing psychologist, has affairs with white women in the town. Their mother is volatile, dealing with infidelity while trying to raise daughters in a place that rejects them.
The complex and interwoven characters of Toni Ann Johnson’s collection, But Where’s Home? create a kaleidoscope of truths about human nature and the United States’ complicated relationship with race.
