Arts Commission awards fellowship to Mississippi School of the Arts author, instructor

The Mississippi Arts Commission has awarded a $4,250 literary artist fellowship to Dr. Nadia Alexis of McComb, leader of the Literary Arts Department at the Mississippi School of the Arts in Brookhaven.

The fellowship is a portion of the more than $1.7 million in grants MAC awarded in Fiscal Year 2025 and it will support the revision process of Alexis’s young adult novel-in-verse and subsidize some of the cost to attend the 2025 AWP Conference in Los Angeles, when Watersheds, her debut book of poetry and photography is published.

“I’m grateful to receive this support for my work and my literary career,” said Alexis. “It’s an honor to be creating and blooming in Mississippi. Learning from some of the state’s best literary and visual artists, and its birds, trees, and skies, has deeply impacted my artistic practice and contributed significantly to me receiving this fellowship.”

Alexis is a poet, writer, photographer, and educator born and raised in Harlem, New York City, to Haitian immigrants, and she’s lived in Mississippi for eight years. Her debut collection of poetry and photography, Watersheds , is forthcoming from CavanKerry Press in March 2025. Her writing and photography have appeared in numerous publications. She has received several accolades including a 2024 Individual Artist Mini-Grant from the Mississippi Arts Commission, a 2024 STAR Teacher Award, a 2024 Vance Fellowship from the Natchez Literary and Cinema Celebration, and being named the 2023 Poet of the Year at the Haitian Creatives Digital Awards. Her photography has also been exhibited in several shows in the U.S. and Cuba. A fellow of the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop and the Watering Hole, she holds a PhD and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Mississippi.

“Mississippi is synonymous with the quality of art that emits from our state. The arts enhance the quality of life and local economies,” said David Lewis, executive director for the Mississippi Arts Commission. “With the generous support from the Mississippi Legislature, we can activate our citizens’ innate creativity and invest in our communities.”

MAC’s annual grant funds come from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Mississippi State Legislature. Awards were made in 92 Mississippi House of Representatives districts and 52 state Senate districts. The Mississippi Arts Commission is a state agency serving more than two million people through grants and special initiatives that enhance communities, assist artists and arts organizations, promote arts education, and celebrate Mississippi’s cultural heritage. MAC is funded by the Mississippi Legislature, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Mississippi Endowment for the Arts at the Community Foundation for Mississippi, and other private sources. For more information, visit www.arts.ms.gov .

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