FOR IMMEDIATE RELEAS E
April 11, 2016

Contact: Katy Simpson Smith
katyssmith@gmail.com

Statement of Mississippi Writers Opposing HB 1523
Mississippi has a thousand histories, but these can be boiled down to two strains: our reactionary side,
which has nourished intolerance and degradation and brutality, which has looked at difference as a
threat, which has circled tightly around the familiar and the monolithic; and our humane side, which
treasures compassion and charity and a wide net of kinship, which is fascinated by character and story,
which is deeply involved in the daily business of our neighbors. This core kindness, the embracing of
wildness and weirdness, is what has nurtured the great literature that has come from our state. What
literature teaches us is empathy. It reminds us to reach out a hand to our neighbors—even if they look
different from us, love different from us—and say, “Why, I recognize you; you're a human, just like
me, sprung from the same messy place, bound on the same hard road.” Mississippi authors have
written through pain, and they have written out of disappointment, but they have also written from
wonder, and pride, and a fierce desire to see the politics of this state live up to its citizens. It is deeply
disturbing to so many of us to see the rhetoric of hate, thinly veiled, once more poison our political
discourse. But Governor Phil Bryant and the Mississippi legislators who voted for this bill are not the
sole voices of our state. There have always been people here battling injustice. That’s the version of
Mississippi we believe in, and that’s the Mississippi we won’t stop fighting for.
The 95 undersigned writers from Mississippi stand opposed to any violation of civil rights, including
discrimination against LGBTQ citizens, and call for the repeal of the recently enacted House Bill 1523.
Ellis Anderson
Ace Atkins
Howard Bahr
Angela Ball
Marion Barnwell
Steven Barthelme
Matt Bondurant
William Boyle
Carolyn Brown
Kelly Butler
Jimmy Cajoleas
Sarah C. Campbell
Julie Cantrell
Hodding Carter III
Hodding Carter IV
Maari Carter
Jim Dees
James Dickson
Kendall Dunkelberg
William Dunlap
Lee Durkee
Margaret Eby
John T. Edge
Liz Egan

Kelly Ellis
W. Ralph Eubanks
Beth Ann Fennelly
Ellen Ann Fentress
William R. Ferris
Ann Fisher-Wirth
Tom Franklin
Martha Hall Foose
Christopher Garland
Melissa Ginsburg
John Grisham
Matthew Guinn
Minrose Gwin
Becky Hagenston
Derrick Harriell
Brooks Haxton
Gerard Helferich
Ravi Howard
Lisa Howorth
T. R. Hummer
Greg Iles
Deborah Johnson
Rheta Grimsley Johnson
Michael Kardos

James Kimbrell
Taylor Kitchings
Jamie Kornegay
Kos Kostmayer
Catherine Lacey
Kiese Laymon
T. K. Lee
Beverly Lowry
Richard Lyons
Suzanne Marrs
C. Liegh McInnis
Margaret McMullan
Greg Miller
Mary Miller
Andrew Malan Milward
Benjamin Morris
Family of Willie Morris
Scott Naugle
Teresa Nicholas
Michael Pickard
Catherine Pierce
John Pritchard
Douglas Ray
Julia Reed

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James Seay
Kevin Sessums
Gary Sheppard
Katy Simpson Smith
Matthew Clark Smith
Michael C. Smith
Michael Farris Smith
Kathryn Stockett
Donna Tartt
Tate Taylor
Wright Thompson
Natasha Trethewey
Tiffany Quay Tyson
Jesmyn Ward
Brad Watson
Larry Wells
Neil White
Curtis Wilkie
Ruth Williams
Austin Wilson
Gerry Wilson
Steve Yarbrough
Steve Yates