“I’m going to tell a story,” Jay Ward says, his voice measured, intentional. “But I want to get it right.”

For Ward, storytelling is not casual. It is a responsibility.

Raised in Rich Square, North Carolina, Ward carries the rhythms, contradictions, and complexities of the South into every line he writes. Today, as a poet, performer, and Charlotte’s inaugural poet laureate, his work reaches national audiences—but it never loses its sense of place.

Because for Ward, place is not just where a story happens.

It is the story.

To understand Ward’s urgency, you have to understand the history he writes against.

For generations, the South—and Southern writers—have been misunderstood, dismissed, and misrepresented. Early critics like H.L. Mencken once reduced the region to a cultural void, describing it as intellectually barren and artistically lifeless. Those words, and the mindset behind them, helped shape a narrative that Southern writers have long had to confront.

Ward does not simply respond to that narrative.

He rewrites it.

“When I talk about place,” Ward explains, “I don’t just mean landscape. I mean something that feels real. Something lived in.”

That distinction is everything.

In Ward’s work, place is not a backdrop—it is a living presence. Built through memory, voice, and detail, it reflects the people who shape it and the stories they carry. His poetry resists stereotype, replacing it with nuance, complexity, and truth.

For Ward, this is more than craft.

It is obligation.

“As a Southerner, sometimes we feel the need to explain the South,” he says. “But as a Southern writer, I think we absolutely feel an obligation—to explain it and to do it right.”

That commitment has not gone unnoticed.

In recognition of his powerful voice and lasting contributions to the arts, Ward is named the recipient of the Mary Frances Hobson Prize for Distinguished Achievement in Arts and Letters at Chowan University.

Established by the Hobson Family Foundation in memory of journalist and poet Mary Frances Hobson, the award honors individuals whose work has made a meaningful impact in the arts and literary world. Each year, the recipient is invited to deliver the Mary Frances Hobson Lecture, sharing insight and inspiration with the university community and the citizens of Hertford County.

For Ward, the recognition is both an honor and an extension of his mission.

His work already speaks to audiences far beyond the page—through performance, mentorship, and community engagement. Now, through the Hobson Lecture, that voice reaches even further, inviting listeners to reconsider how stories are told and whose stories are heard.

Today, Ward stands as one of North Carolina’s most resonant contemporary voices—not only because of what he writes, but because of what his work represents.

Through collections like Composition and Sing Me A Lesser Wound, and through his performances on national stages, he reclaims the narrative of the South. He replaces outdated perceptions with lived experience, inviting audiences to see the region not as it has been labeled, but as it truly is—layered, complex, and deeply human.

He shows that Southern writing is not something to defend.

It is something to understand.

Ultimately, Ward’s message is simple—but not easy.

To tell a story is to carry responsibility.
To write about place is to represent people, history, and memory all at once.

To do it carelessly is to flatten something rich into something hollow.
To do it well is to preserve it.

“We are telling the story,” Ward says. “It is our name. It is our place.”

And getting it right matters.

Because for Junious “Jay” Ward, storytelling is not just about expression.

It is about truth.
It is about legacy.
And it is about making sure that the places that shaped us are not just seen—

but understood.