Jacqueline Crooks on Toni Morrison and Finding Her Voice 2026

Jacqueline Crooks, author of The Ice Migration, reveals how Toni Morrison's voice made her want to find her own. In this exclusive interview, Crooks shares her earliest reading memories, the books that shaped her, and the writers who changed her perspective on literature and life.

Early Reading Memories and the Power of Survival Imagination

Crooks recalls being eight years old when she received The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley, after moving from her grandmother's care to live with her mother and stepfather. The story of leaving one world and adapting to another gave shape to her unnamed feelings and developed her survival imagination—the ability to imagine beyond her circumstances.

This early experience taught her that literature could be a refuge and a tool for navigating life's transitions. It set the stage for a lifelong relationship with books as both mirrors and windows.

Favourite Book: David Copperfield and the Journey to Belonging

Crooks names David Copperfield by Charles Dickens as her favourite book growing up. She followed David's journey from exclusion to belonging, learning empathy and the importance of relationships that sustain us versus those we must leave behind. Dickens's ability to vivify characters made her grow alongside them.

This novel instilled in her a deep understanding of human resilience and the complexities of social bonds, themes that would later permeate her own writing.

The Book That Changed Her as a Teenager: Wuthering Heights

Reading Wuthering Heights at 12 or 13 was transformative for Crooks. Heathcliff's enigmatic, brooding nature fascinated her, and Emily Brontë's depiction of the moors as a living force taught her that landscape is character. This insight shaped her writing style, drawing her to unknowable characters and psychologically alive places.

Brontë's influence is evident in Crooks's own work, where settings are not just backdrops but active participants in the narrative.

The Writer Who Changed Her Mind: Shakespeare's The Tempest

In her 40s, a writing tutor suggested Crooks read The Tempest while she was working on The Ice Migration. The island setting, themes of displacement, and longing for return resonated deeply, making her realize that Shakespeare could speak to her life. This encounter broadened her understanding of classical literature's relevance to contemporary experiences.

It also reinforced her belief that timeless themes of exile and homecoming are universal, transcending cultural and temporal boundaries.

Toni Morrison: The Author Who Made Her Want to Be a Writer

Crooks cannot pinpoint which Toni Morrison novel affected her most—The Bluest Eye, Tar Baby, or Jazz—but she knows Morrison's worlds felt familiar, dreamlike, and grounded yet on the edge of the unknowable. Morrison showed her that Black lives and characters from marginalized worlds are worthy of being centered within literature. Her voice made Crooks want to find her own.

This revelation was pivotal, giving Crooks permission to write from her own cultural perspective and to trust the validity of her experiences as literary material.

Returning to Wilson Harris: Landscape as History and Memory

Initially, Crooks found Wilson Harris's writing demanding, but returning to it in her 40s, she was captivated by his Guyanese landscapes. Harris demonstrated that landscape can carry history, memory, and imagination. This realization helped Crooks value her cultural inheritance and bring Jamaica's landscapes to life in her work.

Harris's influence deepened her appreciation for the interplay between place and identity, enriching her narrative style.

Key Takeaways from Jacqueline Crooks's Literary Journey

• Early reading can shape a writer's imagination and survival instincts.
• Classic literature like Dickens and Brontë offers timeless lessons in empathy and character development.
• Shakespeare's themes remain relevant, even for contemporary writers from marginalized backgrounds.
• Toni Morrison's work validates the importance of centering Black lives in literature.
• Wilson Harris's approach to landscape as history can inspire writers to explore their own cultural roots.

Comparison of Influential Authors

FAQ