Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Jesmyn Ward

Jesmyn Ward is the author of several books, including Sing, Unburied, Sing, which won the National Book Award in 2017. An English professor at Tulane University, she is a 2017 MacArthur Fellow.

Ava DuVernay

Ava DuVernay’s Visionary Filmmaking Is Reshaping Hollywood

Her eye for American history puts her in the vanguard. Her passion for justice makes her a hero