The English Department at the UMN has a series of lectures called the Esther Freier Lecture and they have two free lectures each year with prize-winning authors – A. S. Byatt gave a lecture at the UMN years ago which I attended, and tonight’s lecture was by Jesmyn Ward. I first saw Ward’s books a few years ago when I was in a cute little bookstore called Pass Christian Books, which is just outside Long Beach, Mississippi as you head west towards Louisiana (the autographed books were housed in the top level). I bought Ward’s autographed book Sing, Unburied, Sing back in 2021 for the niece and nephew as their annual Christmas autographed book and got one for myself along with Navigate Your Stars. The books had a slight coffee smell for a while and every time I see them on my bookshelf I am reminded of my visit to Mississippi for my Ph.D. graduation.
So tonight’s Jesmyn Ward lecture was held during a rainstorm and everyone, myself included, was soaking wet as we waited in this huge line for a free autographed copy of Ward’s newest book Let Us Descend. The Department of English and the Ester Freier lecture series kindly gave everyone a free autographed book! More lectures should give away free books, especially autographed books. The lecture was very fun and it was interesting to hear about her process of how she researches and how she listens to podcasts during her long commute. I wish I had time to stay for the book signing after the lecture, as it’s always fun to meet authors, but as I had an autographed book there was no reason to stay and I had to get back to the library.
Here is the official blurb on the event:
The Department of English Presents
An Evening with Jesmyn Ward
Thu, Oct 26, 7:30 pm
Carlson Family Stage
“Join the Department of English at 7:30 pm on October 26, 2023, as the Esther Freier Lecture Series presents the MacArthur Fellow and two-time National Book Award-winning author of Sing, Unburied, Sing and Salvage the Bones. Ward’s new novel Let Us Descend (Scribner) will be published October 24. Ward will read from the new book and be in conversation with English Professor V. V. Ganeshananthan…
One thousand copies of Ward’s book Let Us Descend will be given away. Winning registrants via a random drawing will be notified in advance with instructions on how to pick up books at the event.
Hailed as “the new Toni Morrison” by the American Booksellers Association, Ward is the youngest person to receive the Library of Congress’s Prize for American Fiction and the first woman and first person of color to win the National Book Award for Fiction twice—joining the ranks of William Faulkner, Saul Bellow, John Cheever, Philip Roth, and John Updike. Ward’s novels, primarily set on Mississippi’s Gulf Coast, are deeply informed by the trauma of Hurricane Katrina. Ward’s first historical novel, Let Us Descend—out this Oct—tells the story of an enslaved teenage girl sold by her white father after being separated from her mother. Let Us Descend incorporates elements of Dante’s Inferno, magical realism, and slave narratives to explore grief, resilience, imagination, and kinship.
Ward’s critically acclaimed novel Sing, Unburied, Sing, won the 2017 National Book Award. “A searing, urgent read for anyone who thinks the shadows of slavery and Jim Crow have passed” (Celeste Ng), Sing was nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Aspen Words Literary Prize. Salvage the Bones, winner of the 2011 National Book Award, relates a tale of familial bonds set amid the chaos of the hurricane. Men We Reaped: A Memoir (2013) deals with the loss of five young men in Ward’s life—to drugs, accidents, suicide, and the bad luck that follows people who live in poverty. Ward edited the critically acclaimed anthology The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race, a New York Times bestseller. A professor of creative writing at Tulane University and contributing editor to Vanity Fair, Ward’s many honors include a Strauss Living Award.
The Department of English encourages those attending to wear masks, to self-screen for COVID-19 symptoms using the Stay Safe MN Health Screening Checklist, and to remember to wash hands often, get tested, and stay home when ill or exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19…
Associate Professor Ganeshananthan is a fiction writer and journalist. She is the author of novels Brotherless Night (Random House, 2023) and Love Marriage. Her work has appeared in Granta, The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, The Washington Post, Best American Nonrequired Reading, Columbia Journalism Review, and Ploughshares, among others” (https://www.northrop.umn.edu/events/evening-jesmyn-ward-2023?utm_source=JesmynWard-tkthldrs&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=event-info-JesmynWard-231024 and https://cla.umn.edu/english/research-creative-writing/esther-freier-lecture).
