"A radical book in every sense of the word - thoroughgoing and extreme, ghastly and funny and gloriously provocative, a gauntlet thrown ... Its laugh-out-loud humour always underscores the pain of exile ... Johnson's prose is by turns scathing dark humour, soaring lyricism, and a quietly devastating analysis of every species of injustice. The result is a kind of mind-melting poetry - a linguistic electroconvulsive therapy for the reader. This book will wake you up! "Welcome to Braggsville" toggles brilliantly between tragedy and comedy and never lets the reader off the hook' Karen Russell, author of "Swamplandia!" 'Transcendence is what Geronimo Johnson achieves in this remarkable novel. Every racial assumption is both acknowledged and challenged in ways at times hilarious, at other times poignant. 'Welcome to Braggsville' is ambitious, wise, and brave.' Ron Rash, bestselling author of 'Serena', finalist for the PEN/Faulkner 'Geronimo Johnson is a fearless and driven young writer of dazzling gifts. His books mapAmerican multiculture as a poignant and twisted human comedy in which nobody comes outclean... surprising, heartbreaking, tragicomic, and deeply disturbing.' Jaimy Gordon, author of "Lord of Misrule" 'Geronimo Johnson's powerful second novel combines the intellectual urgency of a satire with the emotional resonance of a tragedy. "Welcome to Braggsville" is as smart as it is subversive, and as bleakly hilarious as it is deeply necessary' Jennifer duBois, author of "A Partial History of Lost Causes" 'Combines Ben Fountain's steely political eye, Junot Diaz's pop-infused dogma, and Toni Morrison's sense of social justice through historical reckoning. All that to say this: "Welcome to Braggsville" is the best and most powerful form of satire; it sets fire to your brain while expanding your heart. Big, shiny literary prizes were created for books like this one' Wiley Cash, author of "This Dark Road to Mercy"

Born in New Orleans, T. Geronimo Johnson received his MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and his M.A. in Language, Literacy, and Culture from UC Berkeley. He has taught writing and held fellowships-including a Stegner Fellowship and an Iowa Arts Fellowship-at ASU, Iowa, Berkeley, Western Michigan University and Stanford. He is also a curriculum designer for Bay Area non-profits and director of the UC Berkeley Summer Creative Writing Program. His fiction and poetry have appeared in Best New American Voices, the Indiana Review, the LA Review, and Illuminations, among other literary publications. His first novel Hold It 'Til It Hurts was a finalist for the 2013 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction. He is currently a visiting professor at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. He lives in Berkeley, California.