The Writings of Jesmyn Ward

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. This book considers the full range of her career thus far, including National Book Award-winning novels Salvage the Bones and Sing, Unburied, Sing, as well as Ward's widely acclaimed memoir, Men We Reaped. Martyn Bone thoughtfully examines key themes running throughout Ward's writing: Black life in the U.S. South; the legacies of slavery and segregation; 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, with particular focus on William Faulkner, Zora Neale Hurston, and Toni Morrison.