Ebony Lumumba Selected 2025 AWP HBCU Faculty Fellow

AWP named Ebony Lumumba, Ph.D., a 2025 HBCU Faculty Fellow for her contributions to Jackson State University's creative writing initiatives.

The Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) has announced Jackson State University’s Dr. Ebony Lumumba as one of its 2025 HBCU Faculty Fellows.

Lumumba is the chair of the Department of English and Modern Languages at Jackson State and an associate professor of English. According to the university, the educator’s dedication to the creative writing space and her efforts to introduce several literature-focused initiatives as part of the HBCU experience reflect the AWP HBCU Faculty Fellowship’s mission to support the work of faculty who strive to promote creative writing at their HBCUs.

According to AWP, 2,025 faculty fellows will receive a $4,000 honorarium, paid travel and lodging to participate in AWP’s Annual Conference & Bookfair in Los Angeles, access to private group discussions, a complimentary one-year AWP membership, and publication in the Writer’s Chronicle about the 2025 AWP experience.

“It’s a tremendous honor to have been selected,” said Lumumba, one of the creators of her department’s program at Jackson State, which offers a minor and concentration in creative writing. “Black writers and Black schools deserve this support and attention. Some of the most brilliant stories of our time were crafted by minds educated at HBCUs.” Support for the program has accumulated over $100,000 in donations in addition to a writer’s series she launched with colleagues that has introduced students to authors like Imani Perry, Ibram X. Kendi, Crystal Wilkinson, Jamila Minnicks, and Michelle Duster.

The college educator earned her Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Mississippi after completing her Bachelor of Arts in English at Spelman College and a Master of Arts in English at Georgia State University.

This year, the HBCU alum is an official panelist for the Mississippi Book Festival scheduled for Sept. 14. As a board advisor with the nonprofit, she is part of a group of literacy advocates reaching thousands of book lovers and authors during their annual festival in the South. She was honored by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History and the Eudora Welty Foundation as the 2013 Eudora Welty Research Fellow before receiving Tougaloo College’s Humanities Teacher of the Year in 2014.

In March 2025, Lumumba and Jackson State’s Department of English and Modern Languages plans to host a screening of “Below the Belt” and a discussion with the filmmaker as part of the Film and Visual Culture Series she previously launched with a screening of “Emmett Till: White Lies Black Death,” which featured a discussion with filmmaker Loki Mulholland. Her advocacy for education and the arts has led to her board roles with the Foundation for Mississippi History, the Mississippi Humanities Council, The International Ballet Competition, and national advisory roles with the Eudora Welty Foundation and the Mississippi Museum of Art.

As the 2025 AWP HBCU Faculty Fellow, the professor is excited to work with and support the new wave of writers as they embark on their writing journeys and pursue the field.