T. Geronimo Johnson, an alumnus of the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, will read from Hold It 'Til It Hurts, his debut novel, at 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 24, in Prairie Lights Books and on a Virtual Writing University live Internet stream.

T. Geronimo Johnson

Johnson is a native of New Orleans, and Hold It ’Til It Hurts is the story of a black Afghanistan war veteran searching for his lost brother amid the chaos of Hurricane Katrina.

Stuart Dybek wrote, “Hold It ’Til It Hurts is the kind of impressive debut that marks its author, T. Geronimo Johnson, as a writer with a career that bears watching.” Read a New Orleans interview about the novel at Gambit.

Johnson teaches writing at the University of California at Berkeley and has been the recipient of both a Stegner Fellowship and an Iowa Arts Fellowship. His fiction and poetry have appeared in Best New American Voices, the Indiana Review, the LA Review, and Illuminations.

The Writers’ Workshop is a program of the UI Graduate College and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. For accommodations at the live event, contact jan@prairielights.com. For a UI arts calendar and details of upcoming events visit the new Arts Iowa website.