Southern Writers Book Discussion with Author Todd Johnson- Dreams of Sleep by Josephine Humphreys

LITCHFIELD, Conn. - Feb. 6, 2015 - PRLog -- Our Sunday Book Discussion Series with author Todd Johnson focuses on three award-winning Southern writers, two of whom are still working today. The selected novels represent a variety of landscapes – New Orleans, Charleston, South Carolina, and the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina - and were published in 1961, 1984, and 2008, respectively. Considered together, these works provide a range of insight into the uniqueness of the Southern voice in fiction as it has evolved through decades of social and cultural change.

Dreams of Sleep won the 1985 Hemingway Foundation Award for a first work of fiction. In it, Alice Reese knows that the cheerful sounds of her family eating breakfast mask a ten-year marriage falling apart. As Alice and her husband, Will, struggle to understand - and perhaps   recapture - the feelings that drew them together in the first place, their interior lives are sensitively and convincingly explored.

Todd Johnson, a native of Charlotte, North Carolina, grew up performing in choirs, bands, and orchestras. After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with honors in history and receiving his master’s from Yale Divinity School, Johnson moved to New York City where he became one of the most sought-after studio singers in the business. He has recorded a myriad of national jingles for television and radio, as well as having performed with such renowned artists as Garth Brooks, Celine Dion, Natalie Cole, Tony Bennett, Barry Manilow, and Sarah Brightman. Turning his energies to his longstanding love of theatre, he received a 2006 Tony Award nomination as a producer of The Color Purple on Broadway.

Johnson’s first novel, The Sweet By and By, won the 2010 Connecticut Book Award for Fiction and has been adapted for the stage by the Touring Theatre of North Carolina with a grant from the NC Arts Council. Johnson is currently co-writing the screenplay adaptation of the novel with Academy Award-winning screenwriter Ron Bass.

Books are available to borrow one month prior to each discussion. Light refreshments will follow the event. All Oliver Wolcott Library events are free and open to the public. Space is limited. Registration is required and can be done by calling 860-567-8030 or logging onto www.owlibrary.org and clicking on Programs/Adult Programs.