"Mother Swamp" by Jesmyn Ward- 2022- 16 Pages -An Amazon Original Story - from The Point in Time Collection - available in the Kindle Unlimited Program
Any day you discover a new to yourself writer who, on first encounter, you add to your read all you can list is an excellent reading life day. "Mother Swap" has made Jesmyn Ward such a writer for me. I have added all her books to my Amazon Wish list.
"Afice is the last of nine generations of women who have survived enslavement, sickness, and hunger. Alone at age seventeen, she sets out through the Louisiana swamps to follow the trail of her ancestors and hear their songs anew. On this journey, Afice must decide how to honor her ancestors while embracing her own future." From Amazon
"Mother Swamp" is set in the slavery days somewhere along the Gulf of Mexico coast, probably Eastern Louisiana among a settlement of women who escaped from slavery and their daughters. Wards shows us the struggles they had to survive in very harsh conditions. I was personally very gratified that she included "Manilamen" in her story. In this imagined community women go to visit the camp of the Manilamen to find a man to impregnate them. They keep the the girls, returning the boys.
For a 16 page story there is just so much in "Mother Swamp".
Ward also includes an account of why she was drawn to write this story and provides illuminating historical background.
Jesmyn Ward is the author of Where the Line Bleeds, Salvage the Bones, and Sing, Unburied, Sing. She is a twice-over recipient of the National Book Award, first in 2011 and again in 2017. In 2016 she was selected for the Strauss Living Award, and in 2018 she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. Visit her website at www.jesmynwardauthor.com
Mel Ulm
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