​2026 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award Nominees


Visual Arts

Winner: 
Call Home, Jerrod Partridge, Ocean Springs 
Nominations:​ 
Peculiar Landscapes, Brook Polly Alexander, Water Valley
Dream Lands, Carl Blackledge, Oxford
The Cotton Sack: Reimagined, Repurposed, Revolutionized, J. Janice Coleman, Vicksburg
Figuratively Thinking, Earl Dismuke, Oxford
Mixed Media, Kate Donovan, Kate Donovan, Water Valley 
Paintings, Kat Fitzpatrick, Kat Fitzpatrick, Bay St. Louis 
Elayne Goodman Exhibit in the Mississippi University for Women's Gallery, Elayne Goodman, Columbus
Birthday Cake for Flannery, Blair Hobbs, Oxford
Structures in Harmony, Andrea Kostyal, Hattiesburg
Sunset Over Vicksburg, Andrea Kostyal, Hattiesburg
The Memory of Landscape, Lucius Lamar, Oxford
Wonder at Dusk, Carlyle Wolfe Lee, Oxford
For the Light Within, Jenny Long, Bend, Oregon

Photography

Winner: Mockingbird Gallery Exhibit, Kat Fitzpatrick, Bay St. Louis
Nominations:
The In-Between: Intimate and Candid Moments of Broadway Stars,  Jenny Anderson, New York 
Soulful Dancer, William Ferris, Chapel Hill 
Hometown Mississippi, Melody Golding, Vicksburg
Where Time Stands Still, Christina McField, Jackson
Grasslands, Justin Sharp, Sebastopol
Delta Lenscapes, Jianqing Zheng, Greenwood

Poetry

​Winner: 
​Bakandamiya: An Elegy, Saddiq Dzukogi, Lincoln, Nebraska
Nominations:
Beyond the Watershed, Nadia Alexis, McComb 
Gadfly: A Lifetime of Writing, Sherry Cothren, Brandon 
Tree Fall with Birdsong, Kendall Dunkelberg, Columbus
An Arm Fixed to a Wing, Olivia Clare Friedman, Hattiesburg
The Law of Truly Large Numbers, James Kimbrell, Tallahassee, Florida 
There Are No Filipinos in Mississippi, Noreen Ocampo, Oxford
Red Camaro, Dwaine Rieves, Washington, DC
No Rhododendron, Samyak Shertok, Starkville
Soulful Dancer, Jianqing Zheng, Greenwood
Visual Chords, Jianqing Zheng, Greenwood

Music Composition (Classical)

Winner: 
​Some Glad Morning, Price Walden, Oxford
Nominations: 
Echos of Christmas, Valentin M. Bogdan, Columbus
Lament for the Red Mountain, Valentin M. Bogdan, Columbus
Grace, Wes Cameron, Purvis
Veriditas: Duet for Soprano and Cello, Tim Coker and Scott Dickison, Jackson
Light: An Advent Ghazal, Tim Coker and Scott Dickison, Jackson
First Snow, Tae Young Hong, Hattiesburg

Youth Literature

Winner: 
I Got You: A Brother's Promise, Derrick Barnes, Charlotte, North Carolina
Nominations:
The Incredibly Human Henson Blayze, Derrick Barnes, Charlotte, North Carolina
City Summer, Country Summer, Kiese Laymon, Houston, Texas
Nic Blake and the Remarkables: The Book of Anansi, Angie Thomas, Ridgeland, Mississippi 

Fiction

Winner: ​
Dominion, Addie E. Citchens, New Orleans, Louisiana
Nominations:
​Everybody Wants to Rule the World, Ace Atkins, Oxford
Indigene, Sefi Atta, Meridian
Saint of the Narrows Street, William Boyle, Oxford
Bodock, Robert Busby, Memphis, Tennessee
I Remember Everything, Brooks Eason, Madison
Lay Your Armor Down, Michael Farris Smith, Oxford
Parables of the Talents, John Jennings, Riverside, California

Nonfiction

Winner: 
​Cassius Marcellus Clay: The Life of an Antislavery Slaveholder and the Paradox of American Reform, Ann Marshall, Starkville
Nominations:
Afrofuturism and World Order, Reynaldo Anderson, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 
Monumental Designs: Infrastructure and the Culture of the Tennessee Valley Authority, Ted Atkinson, Starkville
Get on the Job and Organize, Jaz Brisack, Sausalito, California
Borrowed Land, Stolen Labor, and the Holy Spirit: The Struggle for Power and Equality in Holmes County, Mississippi, Diane Feldman, Jackson
Between Grief and Nothing: The Passions, Addictions and Tragic End of William Faulkner, Lisa Hickman, Memphis, Tennessee
Choctaw Traditions: Stories of the Life and Customs of the Mississippi Choctaw, Eddie Johnson, Tom Mould and Jay Wesley, Choctaw
Reconstruction in Mississippi, 1862-1877, Jere Nash, Jackson
Choctaw Tales: Stories from the Firekeepers, Rae Nell Vaughn and Tom Mould, Indianapolis, Indiana

Life Writing

Winner: 
Split the Baby, Lauren Rhoades, Jackson
Nominations:
House of Smoke, John T. Edge, Oxford
Proud Flesh, Catherine Simone Gray, Jackson
The Möbius Book, Catherine Lacey, Mexico
Beard: A Memoir of a Marriage, Kelly Foster Lundquist,  Monticello, Minnesota
The Dean: Memoirs and Missives, Sparky Reardon, Taylor

Music Composition (Contemporary)

Winner: 
Tumble Home, Molly Thomas, Fairhope, Alabama
Nominations:
Can't Lose My Soul, Annie and the Caldwells, West Point
Six, Bass Drum of Death, Nashville, Tennessee
It's My Time Now, Garry Burnside, Ripley
Where I Lived, Claire Holley, Glendale, California
Wilderness, Alva Leigh, Chattanooga, Tennessee 
Film Score, Fish Michie, Franklin, Tennessee
No Seperation, MSPAINT, Hattiesburg
Live in Clarksdale, Rashad the Blues Kid, Sandersville