Enrichment Series Begins
At Tri-County Technical College

CONTACT: LISA GARRETT, EXT. 2315

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 9/14/2000

PENDLETON --- Tri-County Technical College's Enrichment Series kicks off with an October 2 presentation by USC associate professor of English/author Dr. Dianne Johnson.

Dr. Johnson, whose primary research interest is African American children's literature, will begin her presentation at 11 a.m. by reading to pre-schoolers from the campus daycare and later will gear her talk toward faculty, staff and the community. The reading will be held in Oconee Hall Auditorium. The event is sponsored by the College's Arts and Sciences Division's Enrichment Series Committee. Admission is free, and the parents are invited bring their four- and five-year-olds to hear Dr. Johnson's readings.

Dr. Johnson's current project with St. Martin's Press is a collection of interview-essays with writers, illustrators, editors, publishers and others whose oral narratives are important in fully reconstructing a history of black children's literature.

"My project has been to recover this literature and its history," said Dr. Johnson, who for two years has also served as interim director of the University of South Carolina African American Studies program. "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."

Earlier this year, she, along with Catherine Lewis, edited a special issue of African American Review devoted to black children's literature and illustration.

Another of her projects 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.

Under the pen name Dinah Johnson, she has begun a career as a writer of children's books. Her first book, All Around Town, consists of a narrative accompanying the photographs of Richard Samuel Roberts, an early 20th century South Carolina photographer. Her second book, Sunday Week, illustrated by Tyrone Geter takes the reader through the week's activities in a black community, culminating in the Sunday services at Lovely Hill Baptist Church in Holly Hill, South Carolina. Her most recent books are Quinnie Blue and Sitting Pretty: A Celebration of Black Dolls.

Dr. Johnson holds an A.B. in creative writing/English from Princeton University and a master's in Afro-American Studies and a Ph. D. in American Studies from Yale University. She completed a chancellor's postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California at Berkeley.

She serves on the executive committee of the MLA Division on Children's Literature and the Rhodes Scholarship South Carolina Selection Committee. She is a member and former chair of the Children's Literature Association Scholarship Awards Committee. She serves on the board of directors for the EDVenture Children's Museum.

Her honors include the Josephine Abney Faculty Fellowship in Women's Studies (1994) and the National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Fellow (1992 – 94). This year she was honored with the USC Black Faculty and Staff Association Award for Continuing Excellence in Teaching and Scholarship. She is a three-time winner of the Mortar Board Award for Excellence in Teaching at USC.
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