MS HR29

Extends Mississippi House of Representatives recognition to novelist Jesmyn Ward for receiving the 2021 Governor's Arts Award for Excellence in Literature.

Acknowledges Ward's literary achievements including winning the National Book Award twice for Salvage the Bones and Sing, Unburied, Sing, making her the first woman and first person of color to win the fiction award twice.

Recognizes Ward's receipt of the Mildred and Harold Strauss Living Award (2016) and MacArthur Fellowship "Genius Grant" (2017) from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Notes Ward was born in 1977 in DeLisle, Mississippi, earned degrees from Stanford University and University of Michigan, currently teaches creative writing at Tulane University, and resides in her hometown.

Directs copies of the resolution be provided to Jesmyn Ward and members of the Capitol Press Corps.