When I was writing the memoir, every page was a battle with myself because I knew I had to tell the truth. That's what the memoir form demands. I als…

- Jesmyn Ward

She was the murderous mother who cut us to the bone but left us alive, left us naked and bewildered as wrinkled newborn babies, as blind puppies, as …

- Jesmyn Ward

I wanted to be my own heroine.

- Jesmyn Ward

By the numbers, by all the official records, here at the confluence of history, of racism, of poverty, and economic power, this is what our lives are…

- Jesmyn Ward

I feel like so much of what happened in the Delta over the decades since slavery was abolished seems much closer in the Delta, and maybe that's becau…

- Jesmyn Ward

I'm a failed poet. Reading poetry helps me to see the world differently, and I try to infuse my prose with figurative language, which goes against th…

- Jesmyn Ward

I feel like if you aren't honest and if you don't let go and ease up off of the narrator, then the story doesn't take up a life of its own, and the c…

- Jesmyn Ward

When I decided to write about my brother and friends, I was attempting to answer the question why. Why did they all die like that? Why so many of the…

- 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 …

- Jesmyn Ward