The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race

Jesmyn Ward

Aug 2016 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

The New York Times bestseller, these groundbreaking essays and poems about race—collected by National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward and written by the most important voices of her generation—are “thoughtful, searing, and at times, hopeful. The Fire This Time is vivid proof that words are important, because of their power to both cleanse and to clarify” (USA TODAY).

In this bestselling, widely lauded collection, Jesmyn Ward gathers our most original thinkers and writers to speak on contemporary racism and race, including Carol Anderson, Jericho Brown, Edwidge Danticat, Kevin Young, Claudia Rankine, and Honoree Jeffers. “An absolutely indispensable anthology” (Booklist, starred review), The Fire This Time shines a light on the darkest corners of our history, wrestles with our current predicament, and imagines a better future.

Envisioned as a response to The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin’s groundbreaking 1963 essay collection, these contemporary writers reflect on the past, present, and future of race in America. We’ve made significant progress in the fifty-odd years since Baldwin’s essays were published, but America is a long and painful distance away from a “post-racial society”—a truth we must confront if we are to continue to work towards change. Baldwin’s “fire next time” is now upon us, and it needs to be talked about; The Fire This Time “seeks to place the shock of our own times into historical context and, most importantly, to move these times forward” (Vogue).

Ratings and reviews

The writer's that contributed to this anthology really gave some beautifully narrated stories that highlighted the best and worst of the countries current affairs. Each of these writers could have easily made a book about the stories being told. I enjoyed reading this book on my commute to work...I laughed and also went through a range of emotions reading the stories. The pace and tone of the authors were not angry....but passionate....I feel a deeper context and connection to the issues presented. This book puts you at the uprisings and cities that were discussed. Using the clear lens of James Baldwin as a backdrop was perfect. The story of the young man from Jamaica walking in NY...jumped off the page....that's my life....and I was born in America. Also his words for describing walking as.....Uninterrupted Falling....still moves me as Genius. Also...The story in defense of Phyllis Whitley's husband was unique.......Truly a book full of unique perspectives.....This will be a book you share with Good Friends. Thanks.....My 2 Cents!

About the author

Jesmyn Ward received her MFA from the University of Michigan and has received the MacArthur Genius Grant, a Stegner Fellowship, a John and Renee Grisham Writers Residency, the Strauss Living Prize, and the 2022 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction. She is the historic winner—first woman and first Black American—of two National Book Awards for Fiction for Sing, Unburied, Sing (2017) and Salvage the Bones (2011). She is also the author of the novel Where the Line Bleeds and the memoir Men We Reaped, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and won the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize and the Media for a Just Society Award. She is currently a professor of creative writing at Tulane University and lives in Mississippi.