But Where’s Home?
Publication Date: February 10, 2026
It’s 1963 in the small town of Monroe, New York. The Arringtons, a Black family, buy a house in a picturesque, all-white neighborhood. Some residents are welcoming, but many react to Dr. Philip Arrington, his wife Velma, and their daughters Livia and Maddie by conspiring against their success in both big and small ways. Amidst this mix of hostility and shaky acceptance, the Arringtons must navigate their careers, deal with a volatile marriage, and raise their daughters.
But Where’s Home?, Toni Ann Johnson’s linked short story collection, explores the sometimes painful and often humorous experiences of the Arrington family as upper-middle-class Black people in a predominantly white, mostly working-class community. This book follows Johnson’s previous collection, Light Skin Gone to Waste, which won the 2021 Flannery O’Connor Award. Through multiple perspectives that span from the 1960s to 2022, readers are invited into the lives of the eldest daughter, who longs for her father’s affection while striving for independence; the youngest daughter, who seeks to overcome childhood pain through music and love; a mother dealing with infidelity that wounds and infuriates her, while raising her daughters in a place that rejects them; and a father practicing psychology while engaging in affairs with the white women of the town.
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, classism, colonized thinking, narcissism, abuse, and parent-child relationships. Johnson’s complex and interwoven characters create a kaleidoscope of truths about human nature and the complicated relationship the United States has with race.
News & Reviews
University Press of Kentucky – UK’s Crystal Wilkinson selects inaugural winners of Screen Door Press
Publishers Weekly – How But Where’s Home by Toni Ann Johnson Got Made
Rolling Out – Toni Ann Johnson gets raw with But Where’s Home?
Kinfolk Lit – 2026 Black Book Releases – Our Stories, Our Terms
The Reading Black Girls – Anticipated Black Authored Reads 2026
Brown Girl Collective Podcast – But Where’s Home? by Toni Ann Johnson | BGC Book Club
Common Thread – Toni Ann Johnson Returns with Award-Winning New Story Collection
Black Writers Read – Toni Ann Johnson’s But Where’s Home
Ms. Magazine – February 2026 Reads for the Rest of Us
Kimbilio for Black Fiction – Fellow Toni Ann Johnson
MFA Lore w/ Aimee Lui – Well Published via Contests! Live with Aimee Liu & Toni Ann Johnson
GirlTalkHQ – NAACP-Nominated Author Lays Bare The Realities Of Black Life In America In New Novel “But Where’s Home?”
Largehearted Boy – Toni Ann Johnson’s Book Notes music playlist for her short fiction collection But Where’s Home?
The Watchung Booksellers Podcast – Episode 63: Family in Fiction
Liberation is Lit Podcast – Complicating Race (with Toni Ann Johnson)
Events
January 12th – Brown Girl Collective Podcast w/ Marcie Thomas – YouTube Live
January 14th – Let’s Deconstruct a Story – Live Zoom Podcast
February 8th – Palm Springs Public Library, Our Voices Our Stories – Palm Springs, CA
February 10th – MFA Lore w/ Aimee Liu – Substack Live
February 12th – Comma Bookstore & Social Hub– Virtual
February 15th – Black Writers Read w/ Dr. Nicole M. Young-Martin – YouTube Live
February 18th – WeHo Reads w/ Aimee Liu, Hannah Sward, and Juanita E. Mantz – Virtual
February 19th – The Writers’ Center Virtual Craft Chat w/ Zach Powers
February 25th – (LAUNCH) Skylight Books w/ Karen Grigsby Bates – Los Angeles, CA
March 10th – Red Emma’s w/ Dr. Khadijah Ali-Coleman – Baltimore, MD
March 26th – Watchung Booksellers w/ Al-Lateef Farmer – Montclair, NJ
March 31st – P&T Knitwear w/ Leslie-Ann Murray – New York, NY
April 14th – North Figueroa Bookshop w/ Kate Maryuama & Desiree Zamorano – Los Angeles, CA
May 9th – Jersey City Public Library w/ Maisy Card – Jersey City, NJ
June 27th – Inglewood Public Library (Book Club) – Inglewood, CA
Praise
But Where’s Home? is a striking portrayal of the domestic: the social facades, the lies, the betrayal, the violence, the comedy, the endless longing. With this epic family saga spanning the 1960s to the 1990s and beyond, Toni Ann Johnson mines those eras for all their racial and sexual turbulence and juiciness. The result is a wry, honest look at what a mess our parents can make––of themselves, us, and each other––and how some of us survive, in spite of them. Clever, imaginative, and flawlessly written, But Where’s Home? has a home on my bookshelf as a new classic.
In But Where’s Home?, Toni Ann Johnson brilliantly utilizes the short story form to create a multifaceted portrait of an American family. It’s insightful, it’s gripping, it’s funny, it’s unflinching―it’s the real deal. Not since J. D. Salinger’s Glass stories have I encountered a kindred so alive on the page.
The triumphs and traumas of a multigenerational American family will steal your heart in Toni Ann Johnson’s brilliant epic BUT WHERE’S HOME. This book is gorgeous, insightful, empathetic, relatable, exquisitely detailed — and my favorite story collection of the year, hands down.
To pick up Toni Ann Johnson’s But Where’s Home? is to open oneself up to a question posed by one of its main characters, shortly after the book opens: does a family’s psychological legacy always move “in the right direction, ascending higher and for the best?” Maddie, whose trajectory informs most of this gorgeous collection, tries, from the other side, to alter spiritual fate, to fix a hurt she’s caused her daughter, Velma. We follow this attempt through the eyes of Maddie herself, Velma, who then becomes Maddie’s mother, Phil, Velma’s husband, and Livia, his daughter from a previous marriage. The family drama is so nicely braided with the changing nature of American racism, from the 1930s until now, and ends with our hearing from Emily, a family ancestor, through whom we get the cautionary knowledge that yes, you might ascend, but there will be plenty of trouble along the way. But Where’s Home? is an essential addition to African-American literature in the new millennium, and Johnson’s voice is a breath of fresh air. Readers will be dazzled by both the psychological and the historical scope of this collection.
Each heart-rending story in But Where’s Home? is rife with emotional depth and psychological insight. You’ll root for Livia, wince at Velma, shake your head at Phil, and feel—deeply—for Maddie. Not since John Williams’ Stoner has the inner life of a character been so sumptuously imagined and delicately rendered. With these stories, with this family, Toni Ann Johnson has tapped into something primal.
But Where’s Home? is literary art that does what the best fiction does. It entertains with equal parts depth and levity, educates, fosters understanding about its character and setting, and illustrates the beauty, possibility, and power in the written word.
This captivating collection features an engaging narrative voice, well-developed characters, and satisfying storylines. Johnson’s work is outstanding and this is her best book to date. This impressive effort deserves wide attention.
Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BUT WHERE’S HOME? by Toni Ann Johnson
(Screen Door Press, On-sale: February 10, 2026, Pages 256, ISBN 9781967165032)
“[A]n essential addition to African-American literature in the new millennium … Readers will be dazzled by both the psychological and the historical scope of this collection.”
―Jacinda Townsend, author of Mother Country and Trigger Warning
LOS ANGELES, CA (August 4, 2025) — In February 2026, Screen Door Press, an imprint of the University Press of Kentucky, will publish the linked short story collection 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, confronting 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 their sometimes painful and often humorous lives. 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.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Toni Ann Johnson is the winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award for short fiction for Light Skin Gone to Waste, which was selected and edited by Roxane Gay. The book was also shortlisted for the Saroyan Prize and nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work. Johnson’s novella Homegoing was a semi-finalist for the William Faulkner Wisdom Award in fiction and won Accents Publishing’s inaugural novella contest. Her novel Remedy for a Broken Angel earned an NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Literary Work by a Debut Author. As a screenwriter of historical dramas about race, Johnson won the Humanitas Prize for Ruby Bridges and Crown Heights. Visit her website at www.toniannjohnson.com.
If you would like more information or to interview Toni Ann Johnson, please contact Alyssia Gonzalez, Oso Literary PR, at alyssia@osoliterary.com.