Jason Morgan Ward and Catherine Pierce, both faculty members at Mississippi State University, are among 12 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters award recipients for works published, performed or shown in 2016. The winners, which were selected by out-of-state judges, will be honored June 3 at the MIAL annual awards banquet to be held at Delta State University in Cleveland.
Ward is winner of the Nonfiction Award for his book “Hanging Bridge: Racial Violence and America’s Civil Rights Century” (Oxford University Press). An infamous bridge over the Chickasawhay River in Clarke County is at the center of this second book by the associate professor of history.
Ward holds a bachelor’s degree from Duke University and a doctorate from Yale. He contributes commentary to newspapers and academic journals and anthologies. Of Ward’s book, Jonathan Holloway, dean of Yale College, said, “In Jason Ward’s very skilled hands, it demonstrates how an unremarkable bridge down a lonely country road can embody all the horrors of the American Century. But this is not just a story about a site of racial terror in a deeply Southern place, it is a graceful contemplation of who we are as a nation and how our triumphant and tragic moments intertwine.” The book also won the McLemore Prize from the Mississippi Historical Society.
“I appreciate the recognition and the work that the institute does, especially recognition from an advocate for authors and artists in the state,” Ward said Thursday.
The MIAL Poetry Award is being given to Catherine Pierce for her work “The Tornado Is the World” (Saturnalia Books). Pierce, the author of three books, also won the Poetry Award in 2013. She earned her bachelor’s degree at Susquehanna University, her master’s degree at Ohio State and her doctorate at the University of Missouri.
“Mississippi has a tremendously rich community of writers and artists, and I feel very fortunate to be part of that community,” Pierce told The Dispatch. “The Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters does such wonderful work supporting the arts in our state, and I’m looking forward to celebrating so many of Mississippi’s writers and artists at the ceremony in June.”
An associate professor and co-director of the creative writing program at MSU, Pierce has had her work featured in “The Best American Poetry” anthologies, Boston Review, The Southern Review and many other journals and anthologies. Of this book, Aimee Nezhukumatathil wrote, “With a jeweler’s eye and an uncanny knack for embracing devastating truths and desires, Pierce rewrites what it means to sift through the wreckage of both heart and land. This book is, simply, exquisite.”
For more information about MIAL awards, visit ms-arts-letters.org.
Jan Swoope is the Lifestyles Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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