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PEOPLE & ARTS Monday 16 october 2017
Black novelist Jesmyn Ward ‘overjoyed’ by MacArthur win

By JANET McCONNAUGHEY ent of the National Book praised Ward as a “fiction
Associated Press Award for her second nov- writer exploring the bonds
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — An el, “Salvage the Bones,” of community and famil-
African-American novel- about the struggles of a ial love among poor Afri-
ist praised for her raw and poor African-American can Americans in the rural
powerful depictions of poor family in her native Missis- South.” It added she “cap-
African-Americans con- sippi, set against the back- tures moments of beauty,
fronting racial and eco- drop of Hurricane Katrina’s tenderness, and resilience
nomic inequalities in the ru- strike on the Gulf Coast. against a bleak landscape
ral South said Wednesday The author grew up in DeL- of crushing poverty, racism,
that winning a MacArthur isle, Mississippi , a communi- addition, and incarcera-
fellowship gives her time ty of about 1,100 residents tion.”
and freedom. where more than a third The announcement also
“I think those are the two live below the poverty line. cited her portrayal in “Sal-
most important gifts you Her three novels to date vage the Bones” of the
can give to an artist,” Jes- have been set in a fiction- struggles of a poor fam-
myn Ward said in a video al Mississippi coastal town ily with teen pregnancy, a In this Sept. 19, 2017 photo provided by the John D. and
Wednesday from Tulane called Bois Sauvage. missed opportunity to at- Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, African-American author
University, where she’s a Now 40, Ward said she’s tend college and other ex- Jesmyn Ward, poses for a photo in Pass Christian, Miss.
professor. “So I am deeply currently working on a nov- periences. That book also Associated Press
humbled and also over- el set in early 1800s New was among recipients of Award, which will be made The writer is nearing the
joyed.” Orleans at the height of the the American Library As- in November. end of a two-year break
Hours earlier, the Chicago- domestic slave trade. sociation’s Alex Award for In 2014, while Ward was from teaching at Tulane
based John D. and Cath- “It’s a novel unlike anything adult books that appeal to teaching creative writing University after winning
erine T. MacArthur Founda- that I’ve written. ... I’m a lit- teens. at the University of South the $200,000 Strauss Living
tion announced she was tle nervous, afraid, but also Her first novel, “Where the Alabama, her memoir award in January 2016.
among 24 recipients of the aware of the fact that this Line Bleeds,” was published “Men We Reaped” was a Tulane spokesman Roger
so-called genius grants, novel will make me grow in 2008 and was a finalist National Book Critics Circle Dunaway said he had not
which bestow $625,000 and evolve as a human for two awards. Her third, finalist for autobiography. heard Wednesday whether
on each winner over five being, and I’m looking for- “Sing, Unburied, Sing,” She came to Tulane later Ward plans to extend her
years. ward to that,” Ward said. is among five finalists for that year as a tenured as- leave after winning the Ma-
Ward was the 2011 recipi- The MacArthur Foundation this year’s National Book sociate professor of English. cArthur grant.q