Critical Praise

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

——Omaha Pulp

"[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

"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