The Writings of Jesmyn Ward

"Description: 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. The Writings of Jesmyn Ward is the first monograph focused on Ward's writing, and considers the full range of her career so far. Bone devotes a chapter each to Ward's first three novels-two of which, Salvage the Bones and Sing, Unburied, Sing, won the National Book Award for Fiction-and a further chapter to Ward's widely acclaimed memoir, Men We Reaped. The introduction and epilogue provide an overview of Ward's oeuvre that encompasses her essays (which explore key social issues from the Obama and Trump presidencies) as well as her most recent novel, Let Us Descend. The Writings of Jesmyn Ward also focuses on five key themes running throughout Ward's writing: black life in the U.S. South; the legacies of slavery and segregation, and racism's endurance in the twenty-first century; 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, especially William Faulkner, Zora Neale Hurston, and Toni Morrison. The Writings of Jesmyn Ward will be of particular interest to readers of American literature (especially African American literature and U.S. southern literature), environmental literature, and life writing. The book will also appeal to readers interested in the U.S. South, African American studies, race relations, the environmental humanities, and animal studies"--