My Monticello: Fiction

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A young woman, a descendant of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, is driven from her neighborhood by a white militia. A university professor conducts a secret social experiment on his own son to study racism. A single mother desperately seeks to buy her first home amid impending catastrophe. Each character fights to survive in America. Jocelyn Nicole Johnson's debut explores themes of burdened inheritances and the pursuit of belonging. Set in the near future, the novella "My Monticello" follows a diverse group of Charlottesville neighbors fleeing violent white supremacists. Led by Da'Naisha, a young Black woman with Jeffersonian lineage, they seek refuge in Jefferson's historic plantation home to escape the nation's racial and environmental unraveling. In "Control Negro," praised by Roxane Gay, a professor studies racism by clinically observing his son from birth, aiming to prove that a Black child can be seen as decent and true, challenging national projections of fault. Characters seek home as both a physical place and an internal state, including a Nigerian widower in Alexandria, a mixed-race woman adopting a new identity, and a mother seeking salvation through homeownership. United by their struggles against reality, this formidable work witnesses the country's legacies and introduces a powerful new voice in American fiction.