“I think my love for books sprang from my need to escape the world I was born into, to slide into another where words were straightforward and honest, where there was clearly delineated good and evil, where I found girls who were strong and smart and creative and foolish enough to fight dragons, to run away from home to live in museums, to become child spies, to make new friends and build secret gardens.” ThinkingWorldNeedsChildrenBookEnoughHomeRunningGirlFightingEvilFoundStrongBornSecretCreativeHonestSmartGardenFoolishGood And EvilDragonsMuseumsRunning AwaySpySlidesStraightforwardNew FriendsAway From HomeSecret Garden Author:Jesmyn Ward
“I wrote poetry in middle school and high school and even through college. It was bad. I just don't think I'm very good at writing poetry. I mean, the distillation, I think, is hard for me, but I love poetry.” ThinkingWritingMeanHardSchoolMiddleCollegeHigh SchoolVery GoodLove PoetryMiddle SchoolWriting PoetryDistillation Author:Jesmyn Ward
“Through the process of specifically writing this memoir, there was so much reckoning that I had to do. It was very difficult. It doesn't erase anything that happened, but I think that it was healthy for me to do it. The teenage self-loathing that I suffered from all of a sudden found itself turned into rapids with my grief after my brother died. I turned it inwards. In the same way that my mom processes her grief and her problems. This project, as a memoir, has helped me funnel it outwards.” ThinkingWayWritingSelfProblemFoundProcessDifficultGriefHappenedBrotherMomHealthyProjectsDiedMy MomMemoirMy BrotherTeenageRapidsEraseLoathingSelf LoathingReckoningBrother DiedMy Brother Died Author:Jesmyn Ward
“I have never written a novel that volleys back and forth between a couple of different first person perspectives. It's definitely a challenge because I had to think about who knows what, when do they know it, when are they sharing what they know or what they think they know, how the reader's perspective affects things. Telling the story in that way is challenging. It does require a lot of revision.” ThinkingDifferentChallengesNovelPerspectiveCouple Author:Jesmyn Ward
“I was thinking about the difference in voice between the different characters. Each voice has to be unique. Hypothetically you should be able to read each chapter without the heading that tells you who is telling the story.” ThinkingDifferentCharacterUnique Author:Jesmyn Ward
“I think that voodoo as a spiritual tradition has been demonized for so long in popular culture. I wanted to write against that and write a character who practiced that spiritual tradition who was not evil and intent on creating zombies or causing pain through voodoo dolls or whatever.” ThinkingWritingLongCharacterPainSpiritualCultureEvilTraditionZombiePopular CultureVoodoo Author:Jesmyn Ward
“I consider myself a progressive, so my answer would be that we need to be progressive. For some reason the people in power in Mississippi still seem to be invested in these very American myths."The individual is alone." "We pull ourselves up by our bootstraps." "We create success for ourselves, and if we work hard enough then we will succeed and have success beyond our wildest dreams." I think that we need to do away with that kind of thinking and be more aware of history and how the history of this place bears in the present and how it affects people.” PeopleThinkingKindReasonEnoughDreamIndividualHard WorkSucceedMythProgressive Author:Jesmyn Ward
“I think that we need to be more aware of how we are all interconnected, and how we actually need to invest in safety nets and in education, and that we need to come to the realization that health care is a human right and try to provide that for people.” PeopleThinkingTryingCareSafetyRealizationHealth CareSafety Net Author:Jesmyn Ward
“I think that we're just too invested in that myth that we are not connected, and are all potential millionaires if only we put in the work. I think that's destructive and ignores history and is one of the reasons we as a state are consistently at the bottom of all the lists because we handicap ourselves.” ThinkingReasonBottomMythConsistentlyMillionaire Author:Jesmyn Ward
“I think that I'm trying to hopefully change my children's ideas about what is possible, and about what is possible for them.” ThinkingTryingHopefully Author:Jesmyn Ward
“I see so many talented writers of color struggling to get their work out to an audience. I know that's the case for all writers - everyone's struggling for attention - but I do think that for writers of color it's harder, and for women it's harder, and for regional writers it's harder, too.” ThinkingAttentionAudienceStruggleWork Out Author:Jesmyn Ward
“I'm not saying I have to write a book that's ten times better than my counterparts, but I do think that I have to concentrate my efforts on writing something that will really engage people's humanity and will tie readers to my characters regardless of race. I have to prove that I can connect with a wider audience.” ThinkingWritingBookCharacterHumanityEffortAudienceProve Author:Jesmyn Ward
“Black people in the US are told all the time, from all aspects, that they're nothing, that they're less than. And of course that bears fruit, but no one wants to shoulder part of the blame. A lot of people here can't see around their own family's history. They don't want to see that where they come from and the people they surround themselves with might have played a role in all this. This is all part of our national myth about the individual. We think that a lack of success comes from the individual not working hard enough. A lot of people in this country really believe that.” PeopleThinkingBelieveCountryEnoughIndividualBlackBlameMythSurroundBlack People Author:Jesmyn Ward
“Most people just aren't clear-eyed about the rural South. We think that the urban centers are the problem, and the rural areas across the country are idyllic, suffused with good old American values, social values, religious values, moral values. It's what we tell ourselves to keep this political power structure in place, and it's what we see in pop culture, too.” PeopleThinkingCountryProblemPoliticalValuesCultureReligiousMoralUrbanPop CulturePolitical PowerMoral ValuesAmerican Values Author:Jesmyn Ward
“Some people think that Southern hip-hop doesn't have any depth. They think it's just noise, all about people having a good time in the club. And some of it doesn't have a lot of depth, it's true, but some does. I wanted to work against that stereotype. These are verses by Southern artists who are really wrestling with what it means to be here, young black men who are trying to figure out how to live in the South. So I wanted the epigraphs in my novels to reflect that.” PeopleThinkingMenTryingMeanArtistBlackNovelGood TimesWrestlingSouthernVersesStereotypeHaving A Good Time Author:Jesmyn Ward
