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On Witness and Respair: Essays

By (author) Jesmyn Ward

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The collected creative nonfiction of a singular American writer, Jesmyn Ward, including widely shared classics, three never-before-published speeches, and an introductory essay. Respair (noun, obsolete), fresh hope after despair. From the two-time National Book Award winner and New York Times bestselling author Jesmyn Ward, this collection of essays documents more than a decade of work in the life of a singular writer often lauded as â€œthe heir apparent to Toni Morrisonâ€ (LitHub). Beginning with her upbringing in a multigenerational household in rural Mississippi, the cradle of both her youth and her gift for storytelling, Ward brings her keen wisdom and hauntingly lyrical prose to a range of topics, following in her grandmother Dorothyâ€™s footsteps when she promises always to â€œTell it straight. Tell it all.â€ True to her word, in these pages Ward contemplates the writers and novels of her youth and adulthoodâ€”the transformative power of discovering Octavia Butler as a twenty-something, the mirror that Richard Wrightâ€™s novels held up to her own childhood, and of course, her lifelong love for Toni Morrison. Ward ruminates on her approach to both fiction and life, reflecting on the power of the novel, how to raise a Black son in an era of rising divisiveness and cruelty, as well as her own personal tragediesâ€”including the titular essay of the collection, which tells the story of her partnerâ€™s sudden death on the eve of the COVID-19 epidemic. Every bit as piercing and moving as her fiction, On Witness and Respair is a testament to Wardâ€™s powers as â€œone of Americaâ€™s finest living writersâ€ (San Francisco Chronicle) and is a monument to hope, beauty, and personal and collective resilience.

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