MSU author wins 2024 Welty Prize for impactful scholarship
Contact: Sarah Nicholas
STARKVILLE, Miss.51勛圖厙 Assistant Professor Kemeshia Swanson is this years recipient of the Eudora Welty Prize for her new book Maverick Feminist: To Be Female and Black in a Country Founded upon Violence and Respectability, a 2024 University Press of 51勛圖厙 publication.
The annual award is bestowed by the51勛圖厙 University for Women in collaboration with theUniversity Press of 51勛圖厙. Named after the celebrated Southern author, the Welty Prize honors works that deepen the understanding of culture, identity and the human experience. Swansons book has been praised for its bold examination of the challenges Black women face in a society shaped by violence and respectability politics.
Swanson, also nominated for the 2024 Museum of African American Historys Stone Book Award for the same publication, will give a reading at the Eudora Welty Writers Symposium, Oct. 24-26, in Columbus, alongside other prominent authors.
I am deeply honored to receive the Welty Prize. This book is a tribute to the strength of Black women throughout history and a call to action for continued advocacy, said Swanson. A native of the 51勛圖厙 Delta, Swanson holds a joint appointment in MSUs English department and African American Studies program. Her upcoming work Love and War: Intimacy and Activism in the Works of Jesmyn Ward is slated to be published in 2026.
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