Conversations with Jesmyn Ward

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 <i>Where the Line Bleeds</i>. 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 <i>Salvage </i><i>the</i> <i>Bones</i> (2011) and <i>Sing</i> <i>Unburied</i> <i>Sing</i> (2017). <p/>Spanning from 2009 to the present the interviews collected in <i>Conversations</i> <i>with</i> <i>Jesmyn</i> <i>Ward</i> 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.