Conversations with Jesmyn Ward / edited by Kemeshia Randle Swanson.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Swanson, Kemeshia Randle, editor.

Series:

Literary conversations series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ward, Jesmyn--Interviews.

Ward, Jesmyn.

African American women authors--Interviews.

African American women authors.

African American authors--Interviews.

African American authors.

Novelists, American--21st century--Interviews.

Novelists, American.

Authors, American--21st century--Interviews.

Authors, American.

African Americans in literature.

Race relations in literature.

Mississippi--In literature.

Mississippi.

Southern States--In literature.

Southern States.

Physical Description:

xxvi, 175 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, 2025.

Summary:

"Jesmyn Ward (b. 1977) is arguably one of today's most important authors. Although often compared to William Faulkner, Ward and her writings have done anything but live in that shadow since the 2008 debut of her first novel Where the Line Bleeds. She has produced four novels and a memoir that are equally harrowing and heartening, and she is the recipient of numerous major literary awards and fellowships, including two National Book Awards, for Salvage the Bones (2011) and Sing, Unburied, Sing (2017). Spanning from 2009 to the present, the interviews collected in Conversations with Jesmyn Ward display a master artist with a poetic command for words. Ward's personality and writing style could be characterized as gentle, passionate, fastidious, queer, and brutally honest, as her soft-spoken voice and lyrical prose express a passion for the world so large and consuming that it often emanates as rage or sadness but always leaves readers with a bit of hope. She speaks at length about grief, her writing process, and a love-hate relationship with her home state of Mississippi and the South, as well as the influence that her family, hip-hop music and culture, and vigorous childhood reading have on her writing"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction

Chronology

Getting the South right: an interview with Jesmyn Ward / Nico Berry

Jesmyn Ward on "Salvage the bones" / Elizabeth Hoover

In "Salvage the bones," family's story of survival / Michel Martin

Jesmyn Ward by Rebecca Keith / Rebecca Keith

New memoir recounts Black lives "reaped" too young / Rachel Martin

Jesmyn Ward: "Men we reaped" / Tobias Carroll

The Rumpus interview with Jesmyn Ward / Kima Jones

An interview with Jesmyn Ward / Roxane Gay

Jesmyn Ward on how books can make us better people / Kiese Laymon

Bookforum talks with Jesmyn Ward / Kyla Marshell

Literary voice of the Dirty South: an interview with Jesmyn Ward / Danille K. Taylor

Haunted by ghosts: The Millions interviews Jesmyn Ward / Adam Vitcavage

Powell's interview: Jesmyn Ward, author of "Sing, unburied, sing" / Rhianna Walton

Interview with Jesmyn Ward / Jennifer Baker

"Sing, unburied, sing": a conversation with Jesmyn Ward / Natalie Y. Moore

Ghosts of our past: an interview with Jesmyn Ward / Louise McCune

Ghosts of history: an interview with Jesmyn Ward / Louis Elliot

Jesmyn Ward: "So much of life is pain and sorrow and willful ignorance" / Vanessa Thorpe

For Jesmyn Ward, writing means telling the "truth about the place that I live in" / Sam Briger

The Carnegie Shortlist interviews: Jesymn Ward / Annie Bostrom

Jesmyn Ward / Alma Mathijsen

Jesmyn Ward on writing honest novels with good titles, inhabiting ghosts, and learning to love Faulkner / Jennifer Acker

Two-time National Book Award-winning author Jesmyn Ward on her novel "Let us descend" / Ayesha Rascoe

Poured Over: Jesmyn Ward on "Let us descend" / Miwa Messer

Something beautiful out of the darkness / Regina N. Bradley

"Writing is restorative": a conversation with Jesmyn Ward / Kemeshia Randle Swanson

Additional resources

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Conversations with Jesmyn Ward

ISBN:

9781496856678

1496856678

9781496856685

1496856686

OCLC:

1453070712