Five young men dead within the space of four years. They died of different causes: accidents, drugs, and suicide. They had in common being black, male, from rural Mississippi and friends or relatives of Jesmyn Ward, author of a new memoir titled "Men We Reaped."

Ward's previous book, the novel "Salvage the Bones," won the 2011 National Book Award. You can find our conversation on that book here.

Jesmyn Ward joined me in our studio to discuss her new work. In this extended conversation, we discuss the role and strength of women in her community, and the time it took to write and understand the loss of her loved ones.

Source: Pbs