On witness and respair : essays / Jesmyn Ward.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ward, Jesmyn, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African American women authors--Books and reading.

African American women authors.

African American women--Books and reading.

African American women.

Books and reading--Psychological aspects.

Books and reading.

Resilience (Personality trait).

Genre:

Essays.

Creative nonfiction.

Informational works.

Physical Description:

xxi, 226 pages ; 20 cm

Edition:

First Scribner hardcover edition.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Scribner, 2026.

Summary:

Respair (noun, obsolete), fresh hope after despair. Contains the collected creative nonfiction of a singular American writer, Jesmyn Ward, including widely shared classics, three never-before-published speeches, and an introductory essay.

"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 Dorothy's footsteps when she promises always to "Tell it straight. Tell it all." True to her word, in these pages Ward contemplates the writers and novels of her youth and adulthood -- the transformative power of discovering Octavia Butler as a twenty-something, the mirror that Richard Wright'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 tragedies -- including the titular essay of the collection, which tells the story of her partner's sudden death on the eve of the COVID-19 epidemic. On Witness and Respair is a monument to hope, beauty, and personal and collective resilience." -- Provided by publisher.

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 "the heir apparent to Toni Morrison" ( 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 Dorothy's footsteps when she promises always to "Tell it straight. Tell it all." True to her word, in these pages Ward contemplates the writers and novels of her youth and adulthood: the transformative power of discovering Octavia Butler as a twenty-something, the mirror that Richard Wright'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 tragedies: including the titular essay of the collection, which tells the story of her partner'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 Ward's powers as "one of America's finest living writers" ( San Francisco Chronicle ) and is a monument to hope, beauty, and personal and collective resilience.

Contents:

Introduction

Why fiction matters (address at the Library of Congress, 2023)

No mercy in motion (Guernica, 2013)

My true south: why I decided to return home (Time, 2018)

Open minds, open books: as a child in a small town in Mississippi, the library is where I learned about empathy

and identity (Harper's Bazaar, 2023)

Growing up and grasping Gone with the Wind (NPR, 2012)

Toni Morrison memorial speech (address at Toni Morrison memorial, St. John the Divine, 2019)

We do not swim in our cemeteries: a legacy of not evacuating (Oxford American, 2008)

A conflicted, imperfect love (introduction, As I Lay Dying, Vintage International edition, 2025)

Cracking the code (New Yorker, 2015)

Head rush: a love for Prince emboldened Jesmyn Ward's father to defy the world's narrow expectations of him (Vogue, 2017)

On discovering-for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf (introduction, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, Scribner edition, 2022)

Regina King in Her Element (Vanity Fair, September 2021)

I love you: please don't forget it (introduction, The Fire This Time, Scribner edition, 2016)

Raising a Black son in the US (Guardian, 2017)

The beautiful power of Ta-Nehisi Coates (Vanity Fair, August 2019)

Ava DuVernay's visionary filmmaking is reshaping Hollywood (Smithsonian, 2017)

Jay Gatsby: doomed dreamer (introduction, The Great Gatsby, Scribner edition, 2018)

How to survive in broken worlds: on Octavia Butler's empathy and optimism (introduction, Bloodchild, Seven Stories Press edition, 2022)

On witness and respair: a personal tragedy followed by a pandemic (Vanity Fair, 2020)

Cocoon of sound (Orion, 2025)

You tell your story: you survive (Eudora Welty Lecture, address at the National Press Club, 2019).

ISBN:

9781668064269

166806426X

OCLC:

1591250358