Award-winning author Jesmyn Ward joins The Stacks to discuss her latest novel Let Us Descend. She reveals how the book came to her, and how audience plays into her writing process. We also learn why Jesmyn changed her normal writing process for this book, how she writes to the center of emotions in her fiction, and how her level of success impacts her ability to write.
The Stacks Book Club selection for November is Severance by Ling Ma. We will discuss the book on November 29th with Mitchell S. Jackson.
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Everything we talk about on today’s episode can be found below in the show notes and on Bookshop.org and Amazon.
- Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward
- Tulane University (New Orleans, LA)
- National Public Radio (NPR)
- TriPod : New Orleans at 300 (WWNO)
- “In The Mid-19th Century, Vicious Animal Combat Drew Thousands To Algiers” (TriPod)
- “Sighting The Sites Of The New Orleans Slave Trade” (TriPod)
- Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
- Kathryn Belden
- “On Witness and Respair: A Personal Tragedy Followed by Pandemic” (Jesmyn Ward, Vanity Fair)
- University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI)
- Elizabeth Strout
- Natalie Bakopoulos
- Stegner Fellowship
- Stephanie Soileau
- Sarah Frisch
- Ammi Keller
- Regina Bradley
- Christian Kiefer
- Dante’s Inferno by Dante Alighieri
- Daniel Burke
- Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
- “Ep. 118 Living the Revision with Kiese Laymon” (The Stacks)
- Fortnum & Mason Tea
- Harney & Sons Tea
- Sloane Fine Tea Merchants
- Heavenly Cream Tea from Sloane Tea
- Lauren Groff
- Bryan Washington
- Jesmyn Ward’s Literati Book Club
- The Gone Dead by Chanelle Benz
- National Book Award
- Head Off & Split by Nikky Finney
- Bloomsbury Publishing
- The AWP Conference
- The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
- The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Toni Morrison
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