The Book Prize Index

Men We Reaped

Jesmyn Ward

In five years, Jesmyn Ward lost five young men in her life to drugs, accidents, suicide, and the bad luck that can follow people who live in poverty, particularly black men. But why? As she began to write about living through all the dying, Jesmyn realized the truth -- and it took her breath away. Her brother and her friends all died because of who they were and where they were from, because they lived with a history of racism and economic struggle.

Memoir & AutobiographyMemoir & Autobiography · medium confidenceMemoir & Autobiography81 signalsLlm Classifier: Memoir & Autobiography -> Memoir & AutobiographyOpen Library: Biography -> BiographyOpen Library: African americans, biography -> BiographyLiterary BiographyMemoir & Personal History

Award History

1 wins · 3 total

AwardYearResultCategory / Notes
Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize: Nonfiction2014WinnerSecondary source
National Book Critics Circle Award for Memoir and AutobiographyMajor2013FinalistSecondary source
Dayton Literary Peace Prize: Nonfiction2014FinalistSecondary source
View all award history (3)
Experimental book profileGenerated by GPT-5.4 nano · may contain inaccuracies

This is an unverified interpretation of the catalog description, offered as an opt-in discovery experiment—not as bibliographic fact. Automated checks have flagged this profile for extra review.

  1. 01 Central figures

    • Jesmyn Ward92%

  2. 02 Central places

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

  3. 03 Suggested argument

    No argument inferred with sufficient confidence.

    This suggestion did not meet the normal display threshold and is more likely to be wrong.

    Ward concludes that her brother and friends died due to who they were and where they were from, shaped by a history of racism and economic struggle.

    Model confidence 58%

  4. 04 Reading orientation

    35 / 100 academic

    Serious trade

    An estimate of intended readership and scholarly apparatus—not quality or importance.

Confidence percentages are the model's own estimates. Profile confidence: 63%.