![Before Jesmyn Ward became the first woman to win the National Book Award for Fiction twice, she was a Berkeley-born daughter of Mississippi, grading papers between adjunct jobs, writing novels that bigger houses weren't sure what to do with.Her debut, Where the Line Bleeds, came out in 2008 on a small press after limited interest elsewhere. It didn't make noise. Years later, she would admit she once wrote a memoir proposal as a form of self-sabotage - sending it out expecting the no, and getting it.She kept the manuscript open anyway.Three years later, Salvage the Bones won the 2011 National Book Award. She was 34, writing about a pregnant teenager and her pit bull in a fictional Mississippi town called Bois Sauvage, in the twelve days before Hurricane Katrina.Six years after that, Sing, Unburied, Sing won again in 2017 - making her the first woman in the award's history to win fiction twice. That same year, the MacArthur Foundation called.Ward didn't write to escape rejection. She wrote to stay with the people and place that raised her - DeLisle, Mississippi, the Gulf Coast, the stories that publishing hadn't centered yet.For every SFCWI writer working a day job and writing at night: Ward's first book didn't win awards. Her second and third changed American literature.Every literary giant, especially the successful ones, were told NO many times before the world said Yes. Use rejection as motivation, keep learning, keep growing, and most importantly, keep writing. Your words matter....#WritingCommunity #WritersOfInstagram #CreativeWriting #jesmynward Writers Block Writing Workshop, Editing tips, Finish Your Book, Write Your Story, Writing Process, Fiction, Memoir, Writing Advice, SF Writers, Bay Area Writers, Writing Group, Author Community, Emerging Writers, Revision Process, Writing Accountability, Storytelling Tips, Creative Nonfiction, Novel, San Francisco, Writing Goals, Drafting Tips, Writers Community]()
Before Jesmyn Ward became the first woman to win the National Book Award for Fiction twice, she was a Berkeley-born daughter of Mississippi, grading papers between adjunct jobs, writing novels that bigger houses weren't sure what to do with.
Her debut, Where the Line Bleeds, came out in 2008 on a small press after limited interest elsewhere. It didn't make noise. Years later, she would admit she once wrote a memoir proposal as a form of self-sabotage - sending it out expecting the no, and getting it.
She kept the manuscript open anyway.
Three years later, Salvage the Bones won the 2011 National Book Award. She was 34, writing about a pregnant teenager and her pit bull in a fictional Mississippi town called Bois Sauvage, in the twelve days before Hurricane Katrina.
Six years after that, Sing, Unburied, Sing won again in 2017 - making her the first woman in the award's history to win fiction twice. That same year, the MacArthur Foundation called.
Ward didn't write to escape rejection. She wrote to stay with the people and place that raised her - DeLisle, Mississippi, the Gulf Coast, the stories that publishing hadn't centered yet.
For every SFCWI writer working a day job and writing at night: Ward's first book didn't win awards. Her second and third changed American literature.
Every literary giant, especially the successful ones, were told NO many times before the world said Yes. Use rejection as motivation, keep learning, keep growing, and most importantly, keep writing. Your words matter.
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#WritingCommunity #WritersOfInstagram #CreativeWriting #jesmynward Writers Block Writing Workshop, Editing tips, Finish Your Book, Write Your Story, Writing Process, Fiction, Memoir, Writing Advice, SF Writers, Bay Area Writers, Writing Group, Author Community, Emerging Writers, Revision Process, Writing Accountability, Storytelling Tips, Creative Nonfiction, Novel, San Francisco, Writing Goals, Drafting Tips, Writers Community
13 days ago
