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

Jesmyn Ward was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2017. Beowulf Sheehan/Simon & Schuster

Beowulf Sheehan/Simon & Schuster

Writer Jesmyn Ward calls her maternal grandmother, Dorothy, the “first storyteller of my life.” Dorothy was a twin, but her sister was stillborn. Her mother, Ward’s great-grandmother, was so devastated she struggled to care for her surviving baby.

“My grandmother’s twin was buried in a shoe box, and my grandmother was, like, put in a drawer that was

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