Bio
SHORT BIO
Nadia Alexis is a poet, writer, and photographer born and raised in Harlem, New York City to Haitian immigrants, and she currently resides in Mississippi. Her debut full-length collection of poetry and photography, Watersheds, is forthcoming with CavanKerry Press in March 2025, and it was also a finalist for the 2022 Ghost Peach Press Prize.
Her writing and photography have been published widely, and she has received several awards and honors including a 2024 Mississippi STAR Teacher Award, 2024 Artist Mini-Grant from the Mississippi Arts Commission, a 2024 Vance Fellowship from the Natchez Literary and Cinema Celebration, the 2023 Poet of the Year Honoree of the Haitian Creatives Digital Awards, a 2020 semifinalist position in the 92Y Discovery Poetry Contest, a 2020 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters photography award nomination, and the 2019 honorable mention poetry prize from the Hurston/Wright College Writers Award.
Nadia's photography has 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.
(shorter bio available upon request)
LONG BIO
Nadia Alexis is a poet, writer, photographer, writing coach, and educator who was born in Harlem, New York City to Haitian immigrants. Her debut full-length collection of poems and photographs, titled Watersheds, will be published by CavanKerry Press in Spring 2025. The collection was also a finalist for the 2022 Ghost Peach Press Poetry Prize. She currently resides in Mississippi where she teaches creative writing. Nadia holds a BA in Political Science from Union College where she also studied Africana Studies and French. She holds a PhD in English - Creative Writing Concentration from the University of Mississippi, where she also earned her MFA in Creative Writing.
Nadia's poetry has been published in numerous literary journals, including Indiana Review, MQR: Mixtape, and Shenandoah. Her essays have been published in Poets & Writers, Madame Noire, BLACK STEW, and elsewhere. She was the featured visual artist in TORCH Literary Journal’s 2016 Spring/Summer issue and has additional photographic works published in fields magazine, Forgotten Lands, MQR: Mixtape, and Mfon: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora. Her photography in Mfon features over 100 women photographers of African descent from around the world.
Nadia has received several awards and honors including a 2024 Mississippi STAR Teacher Award, 2024 Artist Mini-Grant from the Mississippi Arts Commission, a 2024 Vance Fellowship from the Natchez Literary and Cinema Celebration, the 2023 Poet of the Year Honoree of the Haitian Creatives Digital Awards, a 2020 semifinalist position in the 92Y Discovery Poetry Contest, a 2020 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters photography award nomination, and the 2019 honorable mention poetry prize from the Hurston/Wright College Writers Award. She has also received award nominations for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net Anthology, and the 2020 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award in photography. A Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop fellow and Watering Hole fellow, she has also previously been mentored by Carrie Mae Weems in an independent scholars fellowship program for early-career scholars and visual artists of color.
Nadia is primarily a self-taught photographer who has been making photographs since 2014. Her work has been exhibited alongside Carrie Mae Weems as part of the multidisciplinary group exhibition titled The Spirit That Resides which took place at the Havana Biennial. Her work has also been exhibited at the Photographic Center Northwest, Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (CCCADI) - virtually, Gammill Gallery, The Carr Center Contemporary, and others.
She is currently the Literary Arts Instructor at the Mississippi School of the Arts, where she leads the department and teaches poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and playwriting.