The Writings of Jesmyn Ward: Matters of Black Southern Life and Death

by Martyn Bone

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 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.
 

266 pages, Paperback

Published July 24, 2025

About the author

Martyn Bone is assistant professor of American literature at the Institute for English, German, and Romance Languages at the University of Copenhagen. His previous publications include The Postsouthern Sense of Place in Contemporary Fiction.

Reviews

[Sue]

I have decided to DNF this book at this time because, after completing the very detailed introduction, I realized that the author was presenting a book by book analysis of four of Ward’s titles of which I have read only one. While I think this analysis would, and will, be interesting, I don’t want to have my experience of these earlier novels and memoir to be affected by reading such in depth analysis beforehand. My first experience of reading Ward was Sing, Unburied, Sing, followed by the Vanity Fair article she wrote after her husband’s death. Most recently I read Let Us Descend. My response to her writing is a mix of emotion and thought, with emotion sparking the enjoyment I feel especially with a first reading. I don’t want to lose that.

My plan is to return to this book in the future when I have read the other works. Additionally, for anyone considering this book, it is not written as a casual discussion of Ward’s work. Rather, it’s written more as a scholarly text outlining the place of this work in Southern literature and world events, and defining what black literature actually is. I will admit, that when I requested this from NetGalley, I did not expect the book before me. I had thought it would be somewhat more casual. But I am interested to eventually reading the author’s conclusions.

[Ayannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was expecting a collection of essays and writings from Jesmyn so was a little suprisised that this ended up being more a critique of her work but not dissapointed. I’ve only read one of Wards’ books but this made me excited to read more of her work and I have so much to look forward to.

Thanks to University of Iowa Press for the ARC!