Jesmyn Ward on Ava DuVernay, Reading History, and the Art of the Profile
In this episode of A Phone Call From Paul, Jesmyn Ward talks to Paul Holdengraber about discovering new directions through history, the hard work of profile-writing, and the realities of child prison labor in Mississippi.
Jesmyn Ward on Talking to Ava DuVernay…
I asked Ava DuVernay questions about humanizing her characters, whether that’s her aim, her work, and her reply was that the assumption of her characters’ humanity is already there.
Jesmyn Ward on Discovering the Realities of Child Prison Labor…
I read about these children and was struck by the fact that I didn’t know (about them), that I grew up in Mississippi near where Parchman Prison was located and yet I had no idea that children that young were sent to Parchman Prison to work on die.
Jesmyn Ward on Reading History…
I’m reading more history, and in some ways that’s making me grow up, pushing me in different directions, and I have to go where it takes me.
Featured photo by Beowulf Sheehan.
Originally published in Literary Hub.
