American - Novelist | -
There is power in naming racism for what it is, in shining a bright light on it, brighter than any torch or flashlight. A thing as simple as naming it allows us to root it out of the darkness and hushed conversation where it likes to breed like roaches. It makes us acknowledge it. Confront it.
Jesmyn Ward
PowerLightSimpleDarknessRacism
There was something so empowering about having President Obama in office because I know that for many of us, that's something that we never thought that we'd see in our lifetime.
ThoughtKnowNeverOfficeSeeUs
I love creating that community and writing about that place, because I think, in some ways, Bois Sauvage is like the DeLisle of my past; it's like the DeLisle of the '80s that I can never return to. So in some ways, when I write about Bois Sauvage, I'm writing about a home that I've lost.
LoveHomeCommunityPastWriting
My mom is the kind of mom, when we would go to a friend of the family's house, and they would offer us something to drink or offer us something to eat, my mother would always say, 'Tell them no.' You could be starving - you could be dehydrated - but as kids, we were supposed to tell the host, 'No.'
FamilyFriendMotherMomYouHouse
My mother worked for a white family that lived in one of the mansions on the beach. The husband in the family was a lawyer; he worked for a firm in New Orleans.
FamilyMotherBeachLawyerHusband
My family has been poor and working-class for generations. And we live - I live in this really small community in Southern Mississippi where you don't evacuate, and you have never evacuated because there are too many people in your family to evacuate.
FamilyLiveCommunityPeopleSmall
On one hand, I can say, you know, I had many family members - I had many people in my extended family who left right after Katrina, who relocated to different cities, right? Houston, Atlanta. Right? Most of them have come back.
FamilyPeopleYouBackI CanKnow
I couldn't run from that desire to tell stories, that desire to tell stories about us, and about the people I loved.
PeopleLovedDesireRunTellUs
Confidence definitely did not get me here! More of, like, desperation.
ConfidenceMeMoreDesperationHere
If I can get a page out in a day, I am celebrating.
DayI AmI CanPageOutGet
I thought about all those people whose suffering had been erased, and I thought, 'Why can't they speak? Why can't I undo some of that erasure?'
PeopleSufferingSpeakThoughtWhy
I need the lightness of children's lit.
ChildrenNeedLitLightness
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