Jesmyn Ward is an American novelist and writer. She is the author of four novels, including Salvage the Bones, which won the 2011 National Book Award for Fiction, and Sing, Unburied, Sing, which won the 2017 National Book Award for Fiction. She has also written a memoir, Men We Reaped, and a non-fiction book, The Fire This Time. Her work focuses on African American life in the rural South.