Eudora Welty gets first marker on Mississippi writers trail

Mississippi has markers noting a blues trail, a country music trail, a civil rights trail and even an Indian mound trail.

Now, with the dedication of a marker to the late author Eudora Welty, the state is starting a writers trail.

Gov. Phil Bryant and National Endowment for the Humanities Chairman Jon Parrish Peede dedicated the first marker Monday at Welty's home in Jackson. Some of Welty's relatives were also there.

A writer of novels and short stories, Welty died in 2001 at 92. She produced a body of work heavily influenced by Mississippi, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, "The Optimist's Daughter."

Welty was also noted for her photography of rural Mississippi during the Great Depression.

The writers trail is planned to mark notable sites related to authors across Mississippi.