Much of Jesmyn Ward ’s time is spent raising her three children, but through her words, she’s also nurtured countless readers. Widely regarded as one of the defining voices of her generation, the author has enriched audiences with her lyrical prose and moving stories about Black identity and kinship in the South since her 2008 debut, Where the Line Bleeds , hit shelves, and her sophomore novel, 2011’s Salvage the Bones , won the National Book Award for Fiction. Throughout her career, Ward has meditated on familial strength and mother-child relationships —be it the memories Annis recalls of her ancestral matriarchs, leading to her rebirth, in Let Us Descend ; or how trauma and systemic structures set up mothers to fail in Sing, Unburied, Sing . "Understanding who we are as family members, caregivers, caretakers, and as children reveals who we are elementally as human beings," Ward tells Marie Claire.…