Jesmyn Ward is an acclaimed American novelist and a professor of English at Tulane University, where she holds the esteemed Andrew W. Mellon Professorship in the Humanities. Born on April 1, 1977, she has made significant contributions to contemporary literature.

Ward won the prestigious 2011 National Book Award for Fiction for her second novel, Salvage the Bones, a compelling narrative focused on familial love and community resilience in the face of Hurricane Katrina. She again secured the National Book Award for Fiction in 2017 with her novel Sing, Unburied, Sing. Notably, she is the only woman and the only African American to win the National Book Award for Fiction twice.

All of Ward's first three novels are set in the fictitious Mississippi town of Bois Sauvage. Her fourth novel, Let Us Descend, explores the journey of the main character, Annis, who finds herself shackled and relocated from the Carolina coast to a Mississippi sugar plantation near New Orleans.