![]() ![]() ![]() Her memoir, Men We Reaped, tells five stories of different young men in her life, including her brother, each killed in the span of four years. In six years, though she wasn’t publishing fiction, Ward was devoting herself to chronicling racial injustices, both those from her personal experience and the high-profile cases of the last several years involving use of deadly force by the police. Even after winning the National Book Award, Ward never got too comfortable with herself as the next visionary American novelist. In fact, I would argue that poetic voice is at the beating heart of her 2011 breakthrough novel, Salvage the Bones. But, respectfully, I disagree with Ward’s diagnosis of poetic failure. It’s a fair assessment of her process, why she chooses certain words, why her characters’ inner monologues often have rhythmic, hypnotic effects. When asked about her lyrical writing style, Ward often answers “I’m a failed poet.” In theory, this means that Ward repurposes her love for poetry-especially repetition, imagistic fragments, and long, rolling metaphors-into her prose writing. ![]() $26, 304 pages.Īward-winning novelist Jesmyn Ward has been called both “the heir to Faulkner” and “a failed poet.” The former comes from a glowing piece in Time magazine about Ward, and the latter comes from the author herself. Sing, Unburied, Sing, by Jesmyn Ward. Scribner, 2017. ![]()
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