Maggie Nelson on Hopelesness-ness

“Hopelessness can be the comedown on the other side of a moment of liberation where you thought everything was going to change, and you feel as if not enough did. Instead of being treated as the dismal paralyzing grind that we sometimes feel it is… it can be: onward we go.”

Maggie Nelson is the author of ten books of poetry and prose. She first published Bluets with Wave Books in 2009; in 2015, Bookforum named Bluets one of the top 10 best books of the past 20 years. Her other nonfiction titles include the National Book Critics Circle Award winner The Argonauts (2015), The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning (2011; a New York Times Notable Book of the Year), The Red Parts: Autobiography of a Trial (2007), and Women, the New York School, and Other True Abstractions (2007). Her poetry titles include Something Bright, Then Holes (2007), and Jane: A Murder (2005). Her most recent book is On Freedom (2021). She writes frequently on art, and in 2016 was awarded a MacArthur "genius" Fellowship.

Maggie Nelson on Hopelesness-ness

“Hopelessness can be the comedown on the other side of a moment of liberation where you thought everything was going to change, and you feel as if not enough did. Instead of being treated as the dismal paralyzing grind that we sometimes feel it is… it can be: onward we go.”

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