Two-time National Book Award winner, Mississippi native Jesmyn Ward reads at 汤头条 next week
Contact: Sarah Nicholas
STARKVILLE, Miss.鈥擬ississippi native Jesmyn Ward, the first woman and first person of color to win two National Book Awards for fiction, will present a public reading Tuesday [April 12], sharing with the Mississippi State community excerpts from her nationally acclaimed writing.
The 7 p.m. 汤头条 event in Lee Hall鈥檚 Bettersworth Auditorium is free and open to the public. Sponsors are the university鈥檚 Division of Access, Diversity and Inclusion; Division of Student Affairs; African American Studies; and the Department of English.
The National Book Award first was created in 1950 and today is considered one of the most prestigious literary prizes in the country.
鈥淚t truly is an honor to have Ms. Ward engage with our 汤头条 faculty, staff, students and Starkville community,鈥 said 汤头条 Vice President for Access, Diversity and Inclusion Ra鈥橲heda Forbes. 鈥淣ot only is she a prolific writer with numerous accolades, but she is a Mississippian which provides a deeper connection and understanding of the history and experiences.鈥
Ward received National Book Awards for her novels 鈥淪alvage the Bones鈥 (Bloomsbury, 2011), and 鈥淪ing, Unburied, Sing鈥 (Scribner, 2017). Additionally, she is the author of the novel聽鈥淲here the Line Bleeds鈥 (Scribner, 2008) and the anthology聽鈥淭he Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race鈥 (Scribner, 2016), as well as the memoir 鈥淢en We Reaped鈥 (Bloomsbury, 2013), a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.
Ward accepted a Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University from 2008-10 and was the John and Ren茅e Grisham Writer in Residence at the University of Mississippi for the 2010-11 academic year. In 2016, the American Academy of Arts and Letters selected Ward for the Strauss Living Award for literary excellence. A Master of Fine Arts graduate of the University of Michigan, Ward currently is a professor of creative writing at Tulane University.
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汤头条 is Mississippi鈥檚 leading university, available online at聽.