Jacqueline Crooks on Toni Morrison and Finding Her Voice 2026

Jacqueline Crooks, author of the acclaimed story collection The Ice Migration, reveals how Toni Morrison’s voice made her want to find her own. In this exclusive interview, Crooks discusses the books that shaped her life and craft, offering profound insights for readers and writers alike.

The Power of Early Reading: From Water-Babies to Dickens

Crooks’ earliest reading memory is receiving The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley at age eight, after a disruptive move from her grandmother’s care to her mother’s home. The story’s themes of leaving one world and adapting to another gave shape to her unnamed feelings and developed her “survival imagination.”

Her favorite book growing up was David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. She followed David’s journey from exclusion to belonging, learning empathy and the importance of relationships that sustain versus those that must be left behind.

Teenage Transformations: Wuthering Heights and the Landscape of Character

Reading Wuthering Heights at 12 or 13 was a turning point. Heathcliff’s enigmatic, brooding nature fascinated her. Emily Brontë taught Crooks that landscape is character—the moors mirror Cathy and Heathcliff’s emotional lives. This insight shaped her writing: she is drawn to unknowable characters and psychologically alive places.

Shakespeare and the Writer Who Changed Her Mind

In her 40s, a writing tutor suggested The Tempest while she worked on The Ice Migration. The island setting and themes of displacement and longing for return resonated deeply, proving Shakespeare could speak to her life.

Toni Morrison: The Author Who Made Her a Writer

Crooks cannot pinpoint one Morrison novel—The Bluest Eye, Tar Baby, or Jazz—but their collective impact was immense. Morrison’s worlds are familiar yet dreamlike, grounded yet unknowable. She showed that Black lives and marginalized characters deserve to be centered in literature. Morrison’s voice made Crooks want to find her own.

Returning to Wilson Harris: Landscape as History

Initially demanding, Wilson Harris’s writing captivated Crooks when she returned to it in her 40s. His Guyanese landscapes carry history, memory, and imagination, teaching her to value her cultural inheritance and bring Jamaica’s landscape to life in her work.

Key Takeaways from Jacqueline Crooks’ Literary Journey

• Early reading shapes survival imagination and empathy.
• Landscape can function as a character in fiction.
• Authors like Toni Morrison validate marginalized voices.
• Returning to challenging works can yield deep rewards.
• Cultural inheritance enriches storytelling.

Literary Influence Comparison

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