The Writings of Jesmyn Ward: Matters of Black Southern Life and Death

Since the publication of her first novel in 2008, Jesmyn Ward has established herself as arguably the most important U.S. author of the twenty-first century. This book considers the full range of her career thus far, including National Book Award–winning novels Salvage the Bones and Sing, Unburied, Sing, as well as Ward’s widely acclaimed memoir, Men We Reaped. Martyn Bone thoughtfully examines key themes running throughout Ward’s writing: Black life in the U.S. South; the legacies of slavery and segregation; neoliberalism as the contemporary form of capitalism; environmental crisis in the Anthropocene; and human-animal relations. Bone also connects Ward’s work to major figures in the U.S. literary canon, with particular focus on William Faulkner, Zora Neale Hurston, and Toni Morrison. Read more