JESMYN WARD
Childhood to Early Adulthood 1977 to 2000
Jesmyn Ward was born 3 months premature, and struggled to survive from the very beginning. She grew up in rural Mississippi, but moved around quite a bit when she was younger, even living in California for a short time before moving back to her parents' hometown in DeLisle, Mississippi. Her mother worked as a maid, for a lot of her private school classmates families, and her father raised pit bulls for fighting. At the age of 5 Jesmyn was attacked by one of her father's dogs, Homeboy, and was told at the hospital that the dog would have killed her if she hadn't fought back.
Ward's father left her family when she was about 10 years old and had 3 younger siblings. He was unable to remain faithful to his wife so he left, leaving her mother to care for all 4 children.
When Ward was 12 years old, one of her mother's employers offered to pay for her tuition to attend a private Episcopalian school, which she accepted. According to Ward's memoir, as she grew older she got more involved and was "a cheerleader, in the drama club, served in student government, and briefly revived the student literary magazine."
Higher Education and Hurricane Katrina 2000 to 2008
Ward excelled when it came to her studies which included being awarded scholarships to Stanford University. She first attended Stanford University where she received a Bachelor's degree in English. Along with a Bachelor's degree, Ward also holds a Master's degree from Stanford in media studies and communication. She attended University of Michigan where she was awarded a Master's in Fine Arts for creative writing. At the University of Michigan, she won 5 Hopwood Awards for her stories, essays and drama.
After she received her MFA at Michigan, she decided to spend the summer at home before she went off to teach—this was the summer of 2005. Because her family was a part of the working class, they were not interested in evacuating. Ward comments how her family has never evacuated for hurricanes because there are too many members of her family. They were staying at her grandmother's house because her mother lived in a trailer. The water started filling up in her grandmother's living room and they went outside. Her family ended up waiting out the storm in her step father's truck because they couldn't be inside the house.
Career 2008 to Present
Jesmyn Ward is currently a professor of creative writing in the English Department at Tulane University. She was recently awarded the Paul and Debra Gibbons Professorship. Ward is the first to receive this honor. She will continue to teach at Tulane, but will additionally work alongside the New Orleans Center for the Gulf Coast and the Newcomb College Institute according to her biography on Tulane University's website.
An article published through the University of Michigan provides some insight as to what sparked Ward's creativity and writing career:
Ward gave one of the night's most emotional speeches, noting she was inspired to become a writer by her younger brother, who was killed in a car accident shortly after she graduated from college. Grieving, she turned to writing to understand the depth and unpredictability of life. "The more I wrote, the more I understood I wanted to write about the experiences of the poor, and the black and the rural people of the south so the culture that marginalized us for so long would see that our stories were as universal and as fraught and lovely as theirs," said Ward, who is an assistant professor of creative writing at the University of South Alabama. "This is a life's work and I am only at the beginning."
Ward Speaks About Her Work
Ward's Works
Where the Line Bleeds - 2008
Where the Line Bleeds is the story of twin teenage brothers, Joshua and Christophe, living with their grandmother on the Gulf Coast. Katrina's aftermath creates a gloomy and desperate atmosphere. Drugs, a suffering economy, lack of employment, and estranged parents contribute to the struggle that these boys endure.
2009 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award Nominee for Fiction
Salvage the Bones - 2012
A father is left to raise four children after his wife dies in childbirth. The children are left to their own devices as their father grapples with the loss of his wife, even seven years later. Randall, Skeetah, Esch, and Junior are learning to interpret the world around them, only for their world to change with the arrival of Katrina.
The 2011 National Book Award for Fiction
The 2012 Alex Award
Men We Reaped: A Memoir - 2014
In this novel Ward focuses on a four year period of her life and the major events within these years. Five young men, all close to Ward's heart, passed away. Death took each of them in a different way, leaving Ward to cope in unfamiliar territory each time.
2013 National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography
Other Sources
Follow Jesmyn Ward on Twitter: @jesmimi
Read Jesmyn Ward's blog
This page compiled by Sydney Brangenberg, Mikayla Mendenhall, and Claire Schmidt.