Where It All Goes Down
Ponca City, Oklahoma; 1951-1971
Marked by Fire is set in Ponca City, Oklahoma. Not only is this a real place, it's where Joyce Carol Thomas grew up. While Thomas was born several years before the fictional Abyssinia, she and her family also picked cotton—just like Patience and many of the other people who call Ponca City home in the book. The setting, then, is familiar to our author. The story may be made up, but it is steeped in Thomas's own lived experiences.
And this matters. Part of what the book accomplishes is it shows real life, for real people, in the middle of an era that's often glorified. The backdrop for Abyssinia's childhood is the Civil Rights Movement—a time filled with historic moments and grand gestures—and yet there's literally not a single mention of the movement in the entire book. Instead Thomas focuses on a black community and the struggles and triumphs of one African American girl as she comes of age. This isn't a story for the history books. It's more timeless than that.