I’ve Got Questions for Jann Alexander

Editor’s Note: This exchange is part of a series of brief interviews with emerging writers of recent or forthcoming books. If you enjoyed it, please visit other interviews in the I’ve Got Questions feature.

What’s the title of your book? Fiction? Nonfiction? Poetry? Who is the publisher and what’s the publication date?

Unspoken: A Dust Novel, fiction, published July 3, 2025, by Black Rose Writing

In a couple of sentences, what’s the book about?

TEXAS 1935. In a mythical town named Hartless in the Texas Panhandle, where nobody knows how to fix air you can’t breathe, one tenacious girl vows to stake her claim there — and face her unspoken fear.

What’s the book’s genre (for fiction and nonfiction) or primary style (for poetry)?

U.S. Historical fiction, 20^th century; women’s fiction; women’s action and adventure; coming of age

What’s the nicest thing anyone has said about the book so far?

A reader commented on social media: “Spent a glorious day with Unspoken! Couldn’t put it down. Your writing is so immersive, I felt like I was right there with Ruby Lee and Willa Mae!”

What book or books is yours comparable to or a cross between? [Is your book like Moby Dick or maybe it’s more like Frankenstein meets Peter Pan?]

Perhaps Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens meets The Women Could Fly by Megan Giddings

Why this book? Why now?

There’s a commonly known Dust Bowl history about the Okies who went to California, thanks to Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath. But the hidden history of the double whammy that hit the Texas Panhandle, when dust storms raged and the Great Depression made millions destitute, is less told, yet has themes that echo today’s.

Upheaval, betrayal, family estrangement, families lost and found, homelessness, mass migration, and poverty are the themes we wake up to in today’s headlines. In the 1930s, during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl, things were no different. Because I hope my readers will find commonality with the characters I write, and from there, understanding, I hope they’ll also find empathy for those who walk the same paths today.

Other than writing this book, what’s the best job you’ve ever had?

I absolutely adored my three-year stint as art director for the Washington Post Sunday Magazine, a weekly that often numbered 72+ pages, so in those three years I was responsible for 156 issues: the overall design, the cover art, the art and photo assignments for the features, plus art or photo assignments for the regular columns, in addition to the entire layout.

The assignment of art necessitated an understanding of the article, so I read stories ahead of publication, too, and even sometimes contributed an idea or headline or treatment when called for.

I’d worked for major ad agencies before this job, and I’d design many more magazines in the future, but this was a dream job at the Washington Post in the heady times Woodward and Bernstein held sway, with the legendary Ben Bradlee as the editor. It was the most exciting place to be and the melding of my creative talents was the most thrilling I’d ever experienced. Every Thursday at 7pm when the courier made his last call for pages to go to the printer was the most satisfying accomplishment imaginable…until the next Thursday at 7pm rolled around on repeat.

What do you want readers to take away from the book?

I hope readers find the characters as captivating as I did when writing them, and that readers are buoyed by the indomitable spirits both daughter and mother possess as they face up to the worst the world can throw at them, and still persevere.

What food and/or music do you associate with the book?

Woody Guthrie’s Dusty Old Dust (now more popularly known as So Long, It’s Been Good to Know Ya) is practically an anthem for Unspoken, which opens on Black Sunday 1935, when the worst black blizzard of dust hit Hartless, the mythical town in the Texas Panhandle, where the main characters have been struggling for five long years in drought and dust. The Dust Bowl Troubadour, Woody Guthrie himself, lived through that Black Sunday storm in Pampa, Texas, and wrote Dusty Old Dust about his experience. I have an entire DUST playlist dedicated to the music of the era, at Apple Music.

What book(s) are you reading currently?

No surprise they’re historical fiction all: I’m loving The Secret War of Julia Child, by Diana R. Chambers; I just finished The Paris Express by Emma Donohue; and next, I can’t wait to start Sheltering Angel by Louella Bryant.