Getting the South Right: an Interview with Jesmyn Ward
by Nico Berry
From the Archives: Nico Berry talks to Jesmyn Ward in 2009 about her debut novel, Where the Line Bleeds.
From the Archives: Nico Berry talks to Jesmyn Ward in 2009 about her debut novel, Where the Line Bleeds.
This week’s feature is Jesmyn Ward’s new memoir, Men We Reaped, which was published this week by Bloomsbury. Ward is also the author of the National Book Award winning novel Salvage the Bones (Bloomsbury, 2011) and the novel Where the Line Bleeds (Agate, 2008), which was an Essence Magazine Book Club selection, a Black Caucus of the ALA Honor Award recipient, and a finalist for both the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. Ward received her MFA from the University of Michigan in 2005, was a Stegner Fellow from 2008-2010, and served as the 2010-2011 John […]
Last week we featured Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage the Bones as our Book-of-the-Week title, and we’re pleased to announce the winners: stacey said, (@staceysaid) Leila N (@LeiNili) joann spears (@JoAnnSpearsRN) Brett Wilcox (@wilcoxworks) Donna Bailey (@DBailey_GirlInk) Congrats! To claim your free copy, please email us at the following address: winners [at] fictionwritersreview.com If you’d like to be eligible for future giveaways, please visit our Twitter Page and “follow” us! Thanks to all of you who are fans. We appreciate your support. Let us know your favorite new books out there!
This week’s feature is Jesmyn Ward’s National Book Award winning novel, Salvage the Bones, which was published last year by Bloomsbury. Ward is also the author of Where the Line Bleeds (Agate, 2008), which was an Essence Magazine Book Club selection, a Black Caucus of the ALA Honor Award recipient, and a finalist for both the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. Ward received her MFA from the University of Michigan in 2005, was a Stegner Fellow from 2008-2010, and served as the 2010-2011 John and Renée Grisham Visiting Writer in Residence at the University of […]
HUGE congratulations to friend of FWR Jesmyn Ward, who just won the 2011 National Book Award for fiction for her novel Salvage the Bones! In reviewing Ward’s novel, Ron Charles wrote in the Washington Post, When the finalists for the National Book Award in Fiction were announced last month, I’m embarrassed to admit that I was among those critics grumbling about the obscurity of some of the authors (Andrew Krivak?), even some of the publishers (Lookout Books?). […] I’m happy to eat my words. And my spinach. I’ve just read another one of the so-called obscure finalists, “Salvage the Bones […]
Approximately one hour ago, the finalists for this year’s National Book Awards were announced on Oregon Public Broadcasting’s morning radio program, Think Out Loud. The event took place in front of a live audience at the new Literary Arts Center in Portland, Oregon, at approximately 9am Pacific Time. And we’re pleased to announce that some of our favorite fiction titles last year have been selected. Congratulations to: Fiction: Andrew Krivak for The Sojourn Tea Obreht for The Tiger’s Wife Julie Otsuka for The Buddha in the Attic Edith Pearlman for Binocular Vision: New & Selected Stories Jesmyn Ward for Salvage […]
Last week we featured Salvage the Bones as our Book-of-the-Week title, and we’re pleased to announce the winners. Congratulations to: Phil Menger (@pippippin) Kate Monahan (@MFAConfidential) Jill K. Bernstein (@jillinski) To claim your signed copy of this novel, please email us at the following address: winners [at] fictionwritersreview.com If you’d like to be eligible for future giveaways, please visit our Twitter Page and “follow” us!
This week’s feature is Salvage the Bones, by Jesmyn Ward. Published last month by Bloomsbury, the book is Ward’s second novel. She is also the author of the highly acclaimed novel Where the Line Bleeds, which was an Essence Magazine Book Club selection, a Black Caucus of the ALA Honor Award recipient, and a finalist for both the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. A Stegner Fellow at Stanford from 2008 to 2010, Ward received her MFA from the University of Michigan, where she won Hopwood Awards for essays, drama, and fiction. She was the 2010-2011 […]
Jesmyn Ward grew up in DeLisle, Mississippi. Her first novel, Where the Line Bleeds (Agate, Nov. 2008), is about twin brothers navigating life after high school in a small Gulf Coast town. Where the Line Bleeds is an Essence Book Club Selection, a 2009 Honor Award recipient from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association, and a nominee for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. Jesmyn Ward’s essays and fiction have been published in Oxford American, A Public Space, and Bomb magazines. She holds an MFA from the University of Michigan, and she is currently entering her second year as a Stegner Fellow at Stanford.
Nico Berry spoke to the author by phone as she soaked up the summer heat back home in DeLisle, Mississippi.
I’m excited to hear Jesmyn Ward read from her beautiful debut novel Where the Line Bleeds. Her reading tonight is part of “Rear Windows,” a BAM Cafe event presented in partnership with A Public Space. This last installment of the Between the Lines series also features a reading by Ian Chillag, films by Félix Dufour-Laperrière and Eva Weber, and a multimedia performance by Dark Hand and Lamplight. Go here for directions and more information.
