When Cars Become Churches: Jesmyn Ward's Disenchanted America. An Interview

Abstract

This interview with Jesmyn Ward, conducted in November 2013, takes as its starting point the publication of her memoir, Men We Reaped. It explores the role of her writing in the context of Hurricane Katrina, the US South, African American culture and identity, and new trends in twenty-first-century US writing.

Written on the Body

“…This analogy illustrates Bares' (2019) observation that "the novel's ending presents narrative ruthlessness and the uncertainty it poses as starting points for creating new forms of engagement and entanglement between planetary inhabitants" (36). In an interview, Ward (2016) explains that her personal experience of Katrina and its aftermath taught her that "if you survive, you rebuild. People rebuild.…”