MSU author wins 2024 Welty Prize for impactful scholarship
Contact: Sarah Nicholas
STARKVILLE, Miss.鈥旂哿κ悠 Assistant Professor Kemeshia Swanson is this year鈥檚 recipient of the Eudora Welty Prize for her new book 鈥淢averick Feminist: To Be Female and Black in a Country Founded upon Violence and Respectability,鈥 a 2024 University Press of Mississippi publication.
The annual award is bestowed by the聽Mississippi University for Women in collaboration with the聽University Press of Mississippi. Named after the celebrated Southern author, the Welty Prize honors works that deepen the understanding of culture, identity and the human experience. Swanson鈥檚 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 History鈥檚 Stone Book Award for the same publication, will give a reading at the Eudora Welty Writers鈥 Symposium, Oct. 24-26, in Columbus, alongside other prominent authors.
鈥淚 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,鈥 said Swanson. A native of the Mississippi Delta, Swanson holds a joint appointment in MSU鈥檚 English department and African American Studies program. Her upcoming work 鈥淟ove and War: Intimacy and Activism in the Works of Jesmyn Ward鈥 is slated to be published in 2026.
For more details about MSU鈥檚 College of Arts and Sciences or the Department of English, visit or .
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