Johanna Stoberock's novels include City of Ghosts and the newly released Pigs. Her short stories and essays have appeared in numerous publications, including Better: Culture & Lit, The Wilson Quarterly, Copper Nickel, Front Porch, and the 2014 Best of the Net Anthology. A 2016 runner up for the Italo Calvino Prize, 2012 Jack Straw Fellow, and 2013 Artist Trust GAP awardee, Stoberock has received residencies from the Corporation of Yaddo, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Millay Colony. She lives in Walla Walla, Washington with her husband and two children.At LitHub Stoberock tagged "five books that rewrite Prospero and his island, rethinking the man while leaving his magic in place," including:
Gloria Naylor, Mama DayRead about another entry on the list.
What joy to find a novel that rewrites Prospero as a woman—and an extraordinarily powerful woman at that. Much of the action in this 1988 novel takesplace in Willow Springs, a barrier island off the coast of Georgia, connected to the mainland only by a rickety bridge. Willow Springs is ruled by Mama Day, ancient worker of magic and healing, descendent of slaves, modest in appearance, enormous in strength. When her grandniece, Cocoa, returns to Willow Springs with her new husband, Mama Day’s magic must rise in protection of the malevolent forces directed against them. Mama Day’s power is as mysterious as Prospero’s, but her motives are clear: protect those she loves, even if they won’t listen to her about needing that protection. Told in richly textured language, sexy and scary and embracing of human flaws, Mama Day reimagines The Tempest as a story of matriarchal power.
--Marshal Zeringue
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