by Jesmyn Ward review by MEREDITH MCKINNIE Ward’s heartbreaking and achingly poignant memoir explores her upbringing in DeLisle, Mississippi, a town that would eventually be wrecked by Hurricane Katrina. Raised primarily by her mother, with a father who was in and out of the house, Ward endures finan...
review by MEREDITH MCKINNIE “The family is like the forest: if you are outside it is dense; if you are inside you see that each tree has its own position.” In this sweeping epic that spans almost three centuries, Yaa Gyasi delivers a powerful punch to colonial history and the transatlantic slave trad...
review by MEREDITH MCKINNIE “A story might help you get through your life, but it doesn’t literally keep you alive — if anything, most often people who have power turn their story into a brick wall keeping out somebody else’s truth, so that they can continue the life they believe themselves to ...
