Jesmyn Ward, author of Let Us Descend – Tanner Humanities Center Skip to content About About the Center Our Team Advisory Boards Support the Center Join our mailing list News and Events News Center Events National Theatre Live Podcast: The Virtual Jewel Box Tanner Book Club How we watch The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City Fellowships, research, and professional development Fellowships Current Fellows and Fellowship Events Tanner Labs Research Interest Groups Gateway to Learning Workshops Mormon Studies (mormon.utah.edu) Search Site Powered by the University of Utah Powered by Search Campus Tanner Humanities Center Home Event Jesmyn Ward, author of Let Us Descend Jesmyn Ward, author of Let Us Descend Date & Time: Thursday, October 23, 2025 7:00pm Location: Salt Lake City Public Library Tickets to this event are sold out. There will be a standby line at the venue. Jesmyn Ward, celebrated as “the heir apparent to Toni Morrison” (LitHub) and one of the most acclaimed novelists of her generation, will deliver the 2025 David P. Gardner Graduate Lecture in the Humanities and Fine Arts. Book signing to follow, with sales by The King’s English Bookshop Ward is the author of Salvage the Bones (2011) and Sing, Unburied, Sing (2017), both winners of the National Book Award, as well as editor of the influential anthology, The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race (2016). Her work explores the rural South, race, environmental justice, and historical memory. Her most recent novel, Let Us Descend (2023), an Oprah Book Club pick, was named one of the year’s best books by The Washington Post, Time, The New Yorker, and others. The title, drawn from Dante’s Inferno, reflects the novel’s engagement with history and spirit. NPR described it as “the literary equivalent of an open wound from which poetry pours.” Ward is professor of English and Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Tulane University. See also: Mike Broida, Home Is a Hymn: Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward — Los Angeles Review of Books Julien Murphet, A cosmic ocean of shame: Jesmyn Ward’s Let Us Descend confronts a history beyond the ken of storytelling — The Conversation Parul Sehgal, Surviving Katrina (review of Salvage the Bones) — New York Times For updates and more events, join our mailing list. The David P. Gardner Graduate Lecture in the Humanities and Fine Arts is administered by the Tanner Humanities Center in collaboration with the College of Humanities and the College of Fine Arts. The Gardner Lecture was founded in the University of Utah Graduate School in honor of former President David Pierpont Gardner. The Gardner Lecture features distinguished scholars and artists from the humanities and the fine arts in alternating years. The lectureship is funded by the Tanner Lectures on Human Values. The Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah supports academic research, public engagement, and educational programming in the humanities. Views expressed in events and programming do not represent the official views of the Center or University. Map PREVIOUS POST NEXT POST About About the Center Our Team Advisory Boards Support the Center Join our mailing list Fellowships, research, and professional development Fellowships Current Fellows and Fellowship Events Tanner Labs Research Interest Groups Gateway to Learning Workshops Mormon Studies (mormon.utah.edu) Tanner Humanities Center Carolyn Tanner Irish Humanities Building 215 S Central Campus Dr Rm 110 Salt Lake City UT 84112 801-581-7989 News and Events News Center Events National Theatre Live Podcast: The Virtual Jewel Box Tanner Book Club How we watch The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City Centers and Programs in Humanities American West Center Asia Center Environmental Humanities International Studies Latin American Studies Middle East Center Mormon Studies Peace and Conflict Studies Second Language Teaching and Research Center Taft-Nicholson Environmental Humanities Education Center © 2026 THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH Nondiscrimination & Accessibility Disclaimer Privacy About the U Media Contacts