Maisy Card

Maisy Card's new novel is These Ghosts Are Family.

From her Q&A with Deborah Kalb:

Q: You write, "Writing this novel has helped me make peace with all the aspects of my family history that are unknown or unresolved." Can you say more about that?

A: There's so much of our history that's been obscured and erased by slavery and colonialism. It was refreshing to find a way to through that, to write this alternative family and reveal a hidden history, even if it's a fictional one.

Q: The novel stretches over several centuries. Did you need to do any research to write it, and if so, did you learn anything that especially surprised you?

A: Yes, I did a ton of research. I thought I knew a lot about slavery but reading first-hand accounts were eye opening. Some of the stuff I learned about the apprenticeship system, which some former slaves argued was even more brutal than slavery, was really fascinating, but...[read on]

Visit Maisy Card's website.

--Marshal Zeringue