The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race

Description

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 light
of recent tragedies and widespread protests across the nation, The Progressive
magazine republished one of its most famous pieces: James Baldwin’s 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 Baldwin’s 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 generation’s 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 Baldwin’s 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 “post-racial” society is an
inaccurate and harmful reflection of a truth the country must confront.
Baldwin’s “fire next time” is now upon us, and it needs to be talked about.
Contributors include Carol Anderson, Jericho Brown, Garnette Cadogan, Edwidge
Danticat, Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, Mitchell S. Jackson, Honoree Jeffers, Kima
Jones, Kiese Laymon, Daniel Jose Older, Emily Raboteau, Claudia Rankine, Clint
Smith, Natasha Trethewey, Wendy S. Walters, Isabel Wilkerson, and Kevin Young.
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Features:

Product Details:

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Scribner; First Edition (August 2, 2016)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1501126342
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 45
• Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 1230L
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.8 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1.3 x 8.38 inches
• Best Sellers Rank: #327,065 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #410 in Censorship & Politics #954 in Discrimination & Racism #1,173 in African American Demographic Studies (Books)
• #410 in Censorship & Politics