As Hurricane Katrina approaches, a desperately poor motherless African-American family in rural Florida tries to prepare for the onslaught while the narrator, 15-year-old Esch, confronts the fact she’s pregnant to a boy who’s disowned her. Jesmyn Ward, winner of the 2011 National Book Award for fiction, is an astonishing talent who has produced a mesmerizing book. She talks to Stephen Romei.
Jesmyn Ward (International)
Jesmyn Ward grew up in Mississippi and received her MFA from the University of Michigan. She is currently an assistant professor of creative writing at the University of South Alabama. Her debut novel, Where the Line Bleeds, was a Black Caucus of the ALA Honor Award recipient and a finalist for both the Virginia Commonwealth University Cabell First Novelist Award and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. Most recently she released the 2011 National Book Award for Fiction winner, Salvage the Bones.
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