Author Dana A. Williams on what Toni Morrison can teach us about editing

Storyboard contributor Christina M. Tapper sits down with Dana A. Williams, author of the new book “Toni at Random: The Iconic Writer’s Legendary Editorship,” for a conversation about Toni Morrison and her work as a trade editor at Random House, where she championed Black writers working in all genres and ultimately changed the publishing landscape. 

The book is the first to focus solely on the Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer’s editing career, and it offers previously untold stories about Morrison's work and insights into the editor-writer relationship. Morrison edited more than 50 books, including works by Toni Cade Bambara, Lucille Clifton, Huey P. Newton, Leon Forrest, Gayl Jones, Angela Davis, and Muhammad Ali. She even edited a cookbook.  

Morrison died in 2019 at age 88. Williams, professor of African American Literature and dean of the Graduate School at Howard University, had Morrison's blessing to write the book and the privilege of interviewing her, and also conducted research in Morrison's archives at Princeton University and Random House's archives at Columbia University.   

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Show credits

Hosted and produced by Mark Armstrong
Episode producer and interview by Christina M. Tapper
Episode editor: Kelly Araja
Audience editor: Adriana Lacy
Promotional support: Ellen Tuttle
Operational support: Paul Plutnicki, Peter Canova

Nieman Foundation interim curator: Henry Chu
Music: “Golden Grass,” by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue)
Cover design by Adriana Lacy

Nieman Storyboard is presented by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard.

Chapters

• 0:00 Storyboard: Dana A. Williams