Jesmyn Ward

Born 1977

Quotes

“So I kept pulling my punches. And later I realised that was a mistake. Life doesn’t spare the kind of people who I write about, so I felt like it would be dishonest to spare my characters in that way.”
On how she “protected” her characters in her first novel Where the Line Bleeds i
“Place is important to my writing; I believe that if a reader gets a clear picture of the place where a character is from, then they can understand what motivates the character, what limits him or her…”
On using the setting to frame her novels in “Jesmyn Ward: ‘So much of life is pa
“But what mires me in pessimism is the fact that so much of life is pain and sorrow and willful ignorance and violence, and pushing back against that tide takes so much effort, so much steady fight. It’s tiring.”
On having a pessimistic nature in “Jesmyn Ward: ‘So much of life is pain and sor
“The reason that I like to use classical myths as models is because African American writers and African American stories are usually understood as occurring in some kind of vacuum — because of slavery.”
On using mythology in her works in “INTERVIEWS: Powell's Interview: Jesmyn Ward,