{"product_id":"on-witness-and-respair","title":"On Witness and Respair","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe collected creative nonfiction of a singular American writer, Jesmyn Ward, including widely shared classics, three never-before-published speeches, and an introductory essay.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eRespair (noun, obsolete), fresh hope after despair.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom the two-time National Book Award winner and \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e 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' (\u003ci\u003eLitHub\u003c\/i\u003e). 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.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTrue 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, \u003ci\u003eOn Witness and Respair\u003c\/i\u003e is a testament to Ward’s powers as one of America’s finest living writers and is a monument to hope, beauty, and personal and collective resilience.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePRAISE FOR JESMYN WARD:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'One of the most important writers in America today' \u003cb\u003eAnn Patchett\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Ward writes like a dream: a real dream, uneasy, vivid and deep as the sea' \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Takes the territory made so familiar by writers such as William Faulkner... and reclaims it' \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Jesmyn is, simply, the best of us' \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eTa-Nehesi Coates\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bloomsbury Publishing PLC","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57298372493656,"sku":"9781037213083","price":25.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9781037213083.jpg?v=1779523262","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/on-witness-and-respair","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}