Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award Nominations
Call for Nominations
The Board of Governors of the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters invite all members of the organization to nominate works for the 2021 awards. Judges will consider only work shown, published, or performed in 2020. Award categories include Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Music Composition (Classical), Music Composition (Contemporary), Photography, Visual Arts, and Youth Literature. Members may nominate more than one individual in any category and self-nomination is allowed. Nominees should be living Mississippians (current residents or former ones with continuing, significant ties to the state). All nominations are subject to board approval, and nominations must be postmarked on or before January 15, 2021.
The nomination form is available here. Please note a change on the nomination form. Music Composition (Contemporary) should be mailed to: Sarah Frances Hardy 434 North 14th Street Oxford, MS 38655
We encourage all members to honor the artistic achievements of talented friends, family and colleagues, and look forward to receiving nominations. 2020 NOMINATIONS are listed below. Please visit the Winners tab for a list of 2020 award recipients.
Visual Arts
Nominations: Jason Bouldin, How Can I Keep From Singing? Elegies in Paint Charlie Buckley, Flooded Delta Earl Dismuke, 2019 Collection Jennifer Drinkwater, Faces and Spaces Kat Fitzpatrick, Not a Still Life Stacey Johnson, Storytellers Richard Kelso, Richard Kelso Recent Works Carlyle Wolfe Lee, Full Bouquet Laurin McCracken, Watercolors Gail Morton, Seymour Prater series & others Marc Poole, Works Created as part of the Natural Museum of the Marine Corps' Combat Art Program Bill Wilson, The Mississippi Governor's Mansion: Memories of the People's Home
Photography
Nominations: Nadia Alexis, What Endures William Eggleston, The Beautiful Mysterious: The Extraordinary Gaze of William Eggleston Melody Golding, Life Between the Levees: America's Riverboat Pilots Will Jacks, Po' Monkey's: Portrait of a Juke Joint Brooke White, Sense of South, Mississippi Burning
Poetry
Nominations: Ann Fisher-Wirth, The Bones of Winter Birds Frank LaRue Owen, The Temple of Warm Harmony C. T. Salazar, This Might Have Meant Fire Jordan Sanderson, Dendrology, Swelter
Music Composition (Classical)
Nominations: Valentin M. Bogdan, "Vantage Points" for bassoon & violin Quincy C. Hilliard, Give Me Tomorrow Steve Rouse, The Bird, the Bee, and the Bear Steve Rouse, Move Steve Rouse, Tunnell's Vision Wadada Leo Smith, Rosa Parks: Pure Love, An Oratorio of Seven Songs
Fiction
Nominations: John W. Bateman, Who Killed Buster Sparkle? William Boyle, A Friend is a Gift You Give Yourself Minrose Gwin, The Accidentals Lisa Howorth, Summerlings: A Novel Greg Iles, Cemetery Road R. J. Lee, Grand Slam Murders Mary Miller, Biloxi Snowden Wright, American Pop
Nonfiction
Nominations: William Alsup, Won Over: Reflections of a Federal Judge on His Journey from Jim Crow Mississippi Lovejoy Boteler, Crooked Snake: The Life and Crimes of Albert Lepard William Dunlap, Pappy Kitchens and the Saga of Red Eye the Rooster Brooks Eason, Fortunate Son Shennette Garrett-Scott, Banking on Freedom: Black Women in U.S. Finance before the New Deal John Hailman, Foreign Missions of an American Prosecutor: From Moscow to Morocco and Paris to the Persian Gulf Shelby Harriel, Behind the Rifle: Women Soldiers in Civil War Mississippi Margaret McMullan, Where the Angels Lived: One Family’s Story of Exile, Loss, and Return Wright Thompson, The Cost of These Dreams: Sports Stories and Other Serious Business Tammy L. Turner, Dick Waterman: A Life in Blues Diane Williams, The Life and Legacy of B. B. King: A Mississippi Blues Icon
Music Composition (Contemporary)
Nominations: Bark (Tim Lee and Susan Bauer Lee), Terminal Everything North Mississippi Allstars, Up and Rolling George Cartwright, dell'umore di chi e sempre in attesa Christone "Kingfish" Ingram, Kingfish Molly Thomas, Honey's Fury Tricia Walker, Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter Eye
Youth Literature Nominations: Jimmy Cajoleas, Minor Prophets Jimmy Cajoleas, The Rambling Gilbert Ford (Illustrator), Rotten! Vultures, Beetles, Slime, and Nature's Other Decomposers John Grisham, Theodore Boone: The Accomplice Angie Thomas, On the Come Up
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