AP
FILE - In this Nov. 15, 2017 file photo, author Jesmyn Ward attends the 68th National Book Awards Ceremony and Benefit Dinner in New York. Scribner told The Associated Press that Ward will write an adult novel about an enslaved woman sent from the Carolinas to New Orleans. She will then work on her first novel for middle graders, a “magical adventure” featuring a Southern black woman with “special powers.” (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)