num_pages: 226
description: National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward takes James Baldwins 1963 examination of race in America The Fire Next Time as a jumping off point for this groundbreaking collection of essays and poems about race from the most important voices of her generation and our time.In light of recent tragedies and widespread protests across the nation The Progressive magazine republished one of its most famous pieces: James Baldwins 1962 Letter to My Nephew which was later published in his landmark book The Fire Next Time. Addressing his fifteen-year-old namesake on the one hundredth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation Baldwin wrote: You know and I know that the country is celebrating one hundred years of freedom one hundred years too soon.Award-winning author Jesmyn Ward knows that Baldwins words ring as true as ever today. In response she has gathered short essays memoir and a few essential poems to engage the question of race in the United States. And she has turned to some of her generations most original thinkers and writers to give voice to their concerns.The Fire This Time is divided into three parts that shine a light on the darkest corners of our history wrestle with our current predicament and envision a better future. Of the eighteen pieces ten were written specifically for this volume.In the fifty-odd years since Baldwins essay was published entire generations have dared everything and made significant progress. But the idea that we are living in the post-Civil Rights era that we are a postracial society is an inaccurate and harmful reflection of a truth the country must confront. Baldwins fire next time is now upon us and it needs to be talked about.
language: English
title: The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race
publisher: Scribner