Title
Celebrating the Selection of Jesmyn Ward's Sing, Unburied, Sing for the 2019 "One Book, One Philadelphia" Program.
Body
WHEREAS, Since its founding in 1891, the Free Library of Philadelphia has worked to build an enlightened community devoted to lifelong learning; and
WHEREAS, Now in its seventeenth year, the Free Library of Philadelphia's One Book, One Philadelphia has brought residents of the region together, encouraging civic conversations, the sharing of ideas, and the joy of reading; and
WHERAS, This year's One Book, One Philadelphia selection is Sing, Unburied, Sing, a novel by renowned novelist Jesmyn Ward; and
WHEREAS, Jesmyn Ward is a writer and professor of English at Tulane University who received her MFA from the University of Michigan and has been awarded the MacArthur Genius Grant, a Stegner Fellowship, a John and Renee Grisham Writers Residency, and the Strauss Living Prize; and
WHEREAS, Ward's second novel, Salvage the Bones, received the National Book Award in 2011. This year's One Book, One Philadelphia selection, Sing, Unburied, Sing, received the same award in 2017, making Ward the first woman and African American author to receive this illustrious honor twice; and
WHEREAS, Sing, Unburied, Sing tells the story of Jojo, a thirteen year old boy in the rural South trying to understand what it means to be a man - and more specifically, a black man - in contemporary America. The book follows Jojo and his family as they embark on a road trip that also serves as a journey through their painful past; and
WHEREAS, The novel was a finalist for the Kirkus Prize, the Andrew Carnegie Medal, and the Aspen Words Literary Prize, and has received resoundingly positive reviews from critics, including from Mike Fischer at the Chicago Tribune, who wrote, "Always clear-eyed, Ward knows history is a nightmare. But she insists all the same that we might yet awaken and sing"; and
WHEREAS, On January 16, Jesmyn Ward joined the Free Library of Philadelphi...
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