Critical Praise

"[Ward] gives us vivid, often jarring images of life in and about women's death row. Remarkable and surprising...."

——Texas Observer

"Like a Rorschach test, Sleep Toward Heaven...prompt[s] readers to look into their own minds and hearts."

——Charlotte Observer

"The grace with which Ward writes... comples the reader to turn every page...."

——Omaha Pulp

"Darkly humorous...Ward's astonishing debut blends pathos and suspense into the rarest of fictional breeds-a literary page-turner."

——BookPage

"Surprisingly sympathetic…smartly rendered. Nothing about Sleep Toward Heaven reads like a first novel. Sophisticated…unerring…. [Ward] puts faces on people we don't like to think about. And she conjures up a completely believable microsociety-funny and tragic and imbued with the morbid irony that comes from waking up each morning knowing the exact day and time you'll die."

——Texas Monthly