from author’s website
Jane Ward is the author of HUNGER (Forge 2001) and THE MOSAIC ARTIST (shortlisted for the 2015 Eric Hoffer Award Grand Prize). Her third novel, IN THE AFTERMATH, (She Writes Press), released in fall 2021.
Jane graduated from Simmons College with a degree in English Literature, the desire to write novels, and an aptitude for–and love of–cooking. Upon graduating, she began working almost immediately in the food and hospitality industry, trying her hand at catering for Creative Gourmets in Boston, planning corporate parties at The 95th Restaurant in Chicago, and baking on the weekends at Quebrada Bakery in Arlington, Massachusetts.
She has been a contributing writer to the online regional and seasonal food magazine, Local In Season, and blogger for and occasional host of cooking videos for MPN Online, an internet recipe resource affiliated with several newspapers across the country.
Although a Massachusetts native, Jane recently settled in Chicago, after returning to the US from Switzerland.
Honors | Awards | Prizes
HUNGER, published by Forge in 2001, was selected by the New Hampshire Humanities Council to be included in the 2001-2002 statewide reading program, New Hampshire Reads.
THE MOSAIC ARTIST, self-published in 2010, received these accolades.
- Notable Fiction by Publishers Weekly Select and reviewed in the October 17, 2011 publication.
- Honorable Mention for fiction at the New York Book Festival in June 2011.
- Honorable Mention for fiction at the New England Book Festival in January 2012.
- Finalist for the Eric Hoffer Grand Prize in 2015.
ABOUT IN THE AFTERMATH:
When David Herron—overwhelmed and despairing, his family’s business and finances in ruin due to the bursting lending bubble of 2008—takes his own life one chilly spring morning, he has no idea the ripple effect his decision will set into motion.
Two years later, his widow, Jules, is now an employee of the bakery she and David used to own—and still full of bitterness over David’s lies, perceived cowardice, and ultimate abandonment of her and their now-teenage daughter, Rennie. Rennie, meanwhile, struggles socially at school, resents her work-obsessed mother, and is convinced she’s to blame for her father’s death.
When Denise, the former police detective who worked (and, due to her own personal struggles at the time, mishandled) David’s case, catches sight of Rennie at her sons’ school, she’s struck by the girl’s halo of sadness—and becomes obsessed with attempting to right the wrongs she believes she perpetrated two years ago.
And as all this unfolds in Boston, Daniel, the guilt-ridden young man who, in his old life as a banker, helped create the circumstances that led to David’s suicide, continues to punish himself for his sins by living half a life, working odd jobs and bouncing from one US city to another, never staying long enough to make friends or build something lasting.
Ultimately, each of these very different people—all of them tied together by one tragic event—must learn in their own way how to say good-bye to the past and move into a brighter future.
Available for purchase here.
PRAISE AND RECOGNITION FOR IN THE AFTERMATH:
“Ward masterfully builds a sense of dread with mundane details in the first section, and the way that she finds significance in moments of ordinary, everyday life is reminiscent of the work of Anne Tyler. This deeply empathetic novel deals sensitively with difficult subjects. . . . An insightful and psychologically astute story of ordinary people moving forward after personal tragedy.”-Kirkus Reviews
“In the Aftermath is a masterful novel in which a man’s suicide leaves indelible marks on those left behind.”-Foreword Clarion Reviews
“This is an absorbing book, and I cared about every character in it. . . . Jane Ward did an excellent job capturing the upheaval suicide has caused.”-Paula Mikrut, Windy City Reviews
“Jane Ward’s deeply resonant, beautifully written, and emotionally complex exploration of this tragedy’s fallout is riveting. . . . Less about suicide than it is about survival, In the Aftermath is a gripping testament to the need for policies that value human life and a vivid reminder that a kinder, more loving world is within our reach.”-Eleanor J. Bader, Rain Taxi Review of Books
AUTHOR VISITS:
Author visits with Jane Ward are available via NovelNetwork.com.