This week we’re starting our first book, Jesmyn Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing. This book is the winner of the National Book Award, a New York Book Review and Washington Post sites it as a top ten book of the year, a feat bested only by it actually being Time magazine’s number one book of the year.

I was drawn to this latest offering from the author on account of her being from my home state of Mississippi. She is currently an associate professor of creative writing at Tulane University and has written three other works to date: The Fire This Time (anthology), Men We Reaped (memoir), and Salvage the Bones (novel).

The synopsis describes the narrative arch of the story as part ghost story, part road novel. A journey through Mississippi’s past and present and an epic tale of hope and survival. A family travels from the Gulf Coast to the state penitentiary – testing emotional bonds and weathering the pull of our collective history. The results are rich and filled with connection, meaning, and healing.

Comment below letting me know you’ve got it and are along for the ride this month! Be sure to subscribe as well.