Alumni Book Club: Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward

The Center for Social Concerns is hosting an online book club for alumni of our programs and courses. Join us to talk about books that engage issues of justice. We’ll do one book each meeting.

Register now to discuss:

Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward
Tuesday, March 26, 7:00–8:15 pm

Hosted by Dr. Connie Snyder Mick and Haley Beaupre ‘10

This 2023 novel has won many prizes. The publisher’s website describes it this way:

“Let Us Descend is a reimagining of American slavery, as beautifully rendered as it is heart-wrenching. Searching, harrowing, replete with transcendent love, the novel is a journey from the rice fields of the Carolinas to the slave markets of New Orleans and into the fearsome heart of a Louisiana sugar plantation.

Annis, sold south by the white enslaver who fathered her, is the reader’s guide through this hellscape. As she struggles through the miles-long march, Annis turns inward, seeking comfort from memories of her mother and stories of her African warrior grandmother. Throughout, she opens herself to a world beyond this world, one teeming with spirits: of earth and water, of myth and history; spirits who nurture and give, and those who manipulate and take. While Ward leads readers through the descent, this, her fourth novel, is ultimately a story of rebirth and reclamation.

From one of the most singularly brilliant and beloved writers of her generation, this miracle of a novel inscribes Black American grief and joy into the very land — the rich but unforgiving forests, swamps, and rivers of the American South. Let Us Descend is Jesmyn Ward’s most magnificent novel yet, a masterwork for the ages.”

You can read more about the book and author here.

The first 15 people to register will be sent a free book!

Please share this with friends who are alumni of the Center. Space is limited. Registered participants will receive a Zoom link to participate.