journalist, activist (Greenville?) Patrick D. Smith (1927–2014), novelist (Mendenhall) Robert Bruce Smith IV (1945–2014), author, local historian (Tupelo) Lynne Spears (born 1955), author (Magnolia) Elizabeth Spencer (1921–2019), novelist (Carrollton) Stuart Stevens, author, political consultant (Jackson) William N. Still Jr. (born 1932), maritime historian (Columbus) Kathryn Stockett (born 1969), novelist (Jackson) Kate Stone (1841–1907), diarist (Mississippi Springs, Hinds County) Donna Tartt (born 1963), novelist (Greenwood) Clifton Taulbert (born 1945), author and speaker (Glen Allan) Mildred Taylor (born 1943), author (Jackson) Wright Thompson (born 1976), sports writer (Clarksdale) Natasha Trethewey (born 1966), 2007 Pulitzer Prize poet (Gulfport) Jamie Langston Turner (born 1949), Christian novelist Irving Vendig (1902–1995), television writer (Holly Springs) Brenda Venus (born 1947), author (Biloxi) Howard Waldrop (born 1946), science fiction author (Houston) Rosa Kershaw Walker (1840–1909), writer, journalist, newspaper editor (Mississippi) Jesmyn Ward (born 1977), novelist (DeLisle) Peggy Webb (born 1942), romance novel author (Mooreville) Eudora Welty (1909–2001), novelist, short story writer (Jackson) Curtis Wilkie (born 1940), journalist, historian (Greenville) Paige Williams (born 1969), journalist, author (Tupelo) Tennessee Williams (1911–1983), playwright (Columbus) Amos N. Wilson (1941–1995), psychologist, author (Hattiesburg) Richard Nathaniel Wright (1908–1960) (Roxie) Al Young (1939–2021), poet, novelist, essayist, screenwriter (Ocean Springs) Stark Young (1881–1963), playwright, novelist, literary critic, essayist (Como) Other people Arthur Blessitt (born 1940), preacher (Greenville) Miriam Chamani (born 1943), Mambo priestess, co-founder of New Orleans Voodoo Spiritual Temple (Jackson) James Copeland (1823–1857), outlaw and co-leader of Wages and Copeland Clan (Jackson County) Cat Cora (born 1967), first female Iron Chef America in franchise history (Jackson) Margaret Ferguson (born 1968), political scientist (Hattiesburg) Jeff Fort (born 1947), leader of Black P. Stones Nation (Aberdeen) Larry Hoover (born 1950), leader of Gangster Disciple Nation (Jackson) Abby Howard, internet cartoonist Leslie Hubricht (1908–2005), biologist and malacologist (Meridian) Mary Comfort Leonard (1856–1940), founder of Delta Gamma fraternity (Kosciusko) Floyd Mayweather Sr. (born 1952), boxer (Amory) L. H. Musgrove (1832–1868), outlaw hanged by vigilante committee in Denver, Colorado (Panola County) Haller Nutt (1816–1864), planter, builder of Longwood (Jefferson County) Richard Ragan (born 1964), White House official, UN diplomat (Cleveland) The Scott Sisters, convicted of murder in controversial case that drew national attention Lenny Skutnik (born 1953), celebrity rescuer of 1982 disaster victim Toby Turner (born 1985), YouTube star, better known as Tobuscus (Osborn) References