In the face of devastating loss, Jesmyn Ward holds onto ‘respair’

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May 20, 2026

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editor@creativeunderworld.com

Jesmyn Ward was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2017.

Ward learned the term “respair” — meaning the recovery of hope after despair — during the pandemic. Her new book On Witness and Respair is an essay collection on grief, motherhood and survival.

(Image credit: Beowulf Sheehan)