Angela Johnson, the 2021 Harper Lee Award for Alabama s Distinguished Writer recipient, was born in Tuskegee, though her name may not be as immediately recognizable in her birth state as that of previous recipients, such as Rick Bragg, Fannie Flagg, Gay Talese, Winston Groom or Mark Childress.
That s a knowledge gap the prestigious award should help address, said Jeanie Thompson, executive director of the Alabama Writers Forum. I am very happy for Angela Johnson to be returning to Alabama virtually, Thompson said, speaking of the 2021 Zoom version of the Monroeville Literary Festival, March 4-6, so that we can make her work more known to families and readers in Alabama.