Jesmyn Ward: From Page to Stage

English Department Chair, Joseph Addiosn described Ward's visit as a collaborative experience for the community. Addison highlighted that giving every student a copy of Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing or Navigate Your Stars during the all school assembly and Q&As, created “a common unifying moment” and a “shared vocabulary” that allowed for deeper conversations. 

English teachers Terence Mooney and Shanti Madison, who moderated the all school assembly, explained their perspective on Ward’s visit. Terence Mooney emphasized that since Ward “was read across the entire school community,” students showed a “different level of investment” in their reading. Mooney also noted that Ward and other author visits create a “valuable” sense of “community…especially when everyone is familiar with the text." Madison echoed the importance of Ward’s visit: “It is very rare at Hopkins that we get to meet authors that we are actively reading...I hope that with that understanding of how relevant the topics are that encourages all students and teachers to have deeper conversations about generational trauma.”

During her A block Q&A session, Ward reflected on her personal experiences that shaped her journey with writing. Ward explained that “I was a reader before I was a writer,” and that she fell in “love with that experience of sinking into another world” when reading stories. She began “trying to write when [she] was in high school” and later, at university, she wrote “poetry but…did not take…creative writing classes…because I [was scared].” But after graduating university, Ward said, “my brother died…and I realized… that I wasn’t promised a future” so she asked herself  “‘...what are you going to do with this time that you've been given that your brother hasn't?’ the immediate answer that struck me was writing.” 

Vivian Kelley ’29, who read Navigate Your Stars in her English 9 class, said that hearing Ward’s description of “the challenges she faced on her journey of becoming a writer… really struck a chord with me. Ward didn’t always know what direction her life would take her, but she was persistent in achieving her goals.” Addison also explained the value of hearing Ward demystify her writing process, showing that even an acclaimed author must engage in months of rewriting and reimagining, with the goal, as she put it, of making “your prose…sing.” 

Ward’s recitation gave students and teachers a new forum to engage with her writing style. Mooney described her writing as “really accessible…but also lyrical,” noting that she had been compared to Toni Morrison and William Faulkner “for good reason.” Mooney said he enjoyed “her presence, the way she was so humble [and] willing to hear any number of questions from students across different age groups.” Similarly, Aashi Karanth ’27 explained her experience: “the way authors read showed me their own understanding of how they want [their writing] to sound.” Hearing Ward’s recitation impacted Avery Kinney ’29, who explained that prior to Ward's visit, “I honestly was not a huge fan of her writing.” However, “Jesmyn Ward surprised me,” Kinney said, “in that her visit to Hopkins changed my entire opinion on her writing; in fact, her novel is now on my list for books I would like to read.”

Members of the Hopkins community appreciated the versatility of themes Ward’s writing explores. Mooney admired how Ward’s novels remain grounded in Mississippi and “how [her] writing can quite literally transport us somewhere else...transcending time, place, culture, and race.” He explained the importance of Ward’s choice to “center children and teenagers in her stories,” recalling how she said it came from “the desire to model agency for kids who are inherently disempowered in society.” Similarly, Madison said that Ward’s focus on “trauma and...spirituality” sets her apart and that “much of what Sing, Unburied, Sing does very successfully is it has characters telling each other stories…[which is] not only more entertaining, but you get more perspective and depth of experience.” 

Ward’s novels also challenge complex themes of grief. History teacher, Tish Hooks who moderated the evening event with Ward, noted that Ward’s characters reveal “beautiful fragility...amid the thistles, inside the calloused heart,” while English teacher, Hughes Fitzgerald, who also moderated the event, praised her writing for leaving “room for hope and love while navigating tremendous loss.” Grief through Ward’s writing made Mikoto Araki-Siegenfield ’26 realize that “a lot of the emotional complexities the characters faced were shaped by her own thoughts…” 

Ward’s visit gave Hopkins a strong sense of community and value in her unique craft and style. Ward’s exploration of navigating grief and trauma in light of her personal experiences make all her works have, as Fitzgerald said, “a transformative quality to them.”