SHORTER BIO
Nadia Alexis is a poet, writer, and photographer born to Haitian immigrants in Harlem. She is the author of the hybrid poetry and photography collection, Beyond the Watershed, which was a finalist for the 2026 Nossrat Yassini Poetry Prize, longlisted for the 2025 Maya Angelou Book Award, and a finalist for the 2022 Ghost Peach Press Prize in Poetry. She has been named one of Poets & Writers Magazine’s 2026 Ten Best Debut Poets.
She has earned numerous honors, including a Literary Arts Fellowship and Artist Mini-Grants from the Mississippi Arts Commission, a Mississippi STAR Teacher Award, and recognition as the Poet of the Year Honoree of the Haitian Creatives Digital Awards. A fellow of the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop and The Watering Hole, she holds a PhD and MFA from the University of Mississippi.
(shorter bio available upon request)
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. She is the author of a debut full-length collection of poetry and photography, Beyond the Watershed (CavanKerry Press, March 2025), which was a finalist for the 2026 Nossrat Yassini Poetry Prize, longlisted for the 2025 Maya Angelou Book Award, and a finalist for the 2022 Ghost Peach Press Prize. She has been named one of Poets & Writers Magazine’s 2026 Ten Best Debut Poets.
Her writing and photography have been published widely, and she has received several awards and honors including a 2025 Literary Arts Fellowship, 2024 and 2026 Artist Mini-Grants from the Mississippi Arts Commission, a 2024 Mississippi STAR Teacher Award, 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 semifinalist position in the 2020 92Y Discovery Poetry Contest, nominations for the 2020 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters awards in photography and poetry, and an honorable mention prize in the 2019 Hurston/Wright College Writers Award for poetry.
Nadia's photography has been exhibited in several shows in the U.S., Cuba, and virtually. A fellow of the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop, The Watering Hole, and the Poets & Writers Get the Word Out Publicity Incubator, she holds a PhD and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Mississippi. She currently resides in Mississippi, where she teaches creative writing to youth and adult writers.
LONGER BIO
Nadia Alexis is a poet, writer, and photographer, born in Harlem, New York City to Haitian immigrants. She is the author of a debut full-length collection of poems and photographs, Beyond the Watershed (CavanKerry Press, March 2025), which was a finalist for the 2026 Nossrat Yassini Poetry Prize, longlisted for the 2025 Maya Angelou Book Award, and a finalist for the 2022 Ghost Peach Press Poetry Prize. The book has garnered attention as a Publishers Weekly “Spring 2025 Poetry Preview" title and one of Karibbean Kollective’s most anticipated Caribbean releases of 2025. She has been named one of Poets & Writers Magazine’s 2026 Ten Best Debut Poets.
She holds a BA in Political Science from Union College, where she also studied Africana Studies and French. She later earned a PhD and MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Mississippi.
Her poetry has appeared in Indiana Review, MQR: Mixtape, and Shenandoah, and her essays have been published in Poets & Writers, Madame Noire, and BLACK STEW. As a photographer, she has exhibited widely in the U.S., Cuba, and virtually, including in MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora alongside over 100 women of African descent, and in group exhibitions with Carrie Mae Weems, including at the Havana Biennial.
Her honors include a 2024 Mississippi STAR Teacher Award, a a 2025 Literary Arts Fellowship and 2024 and 2026 Artist Mini-Grants from the Mississippi Arts Commission, a 2024 Vance Fellowship from the Natchez Literary and Cinema Celebration, and recognition as 2023 Poet of the Year by the Haitian Creatives Digital Awards. She was also a semifinalist in the 92Y Discovery Poetry Contest, has received Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters nominations in both photography and poetry, and nominations for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net Anthology. A fellow of the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop and The Watering Hole, she was also mentored by Carrie Mae Weems in an independent scholars program for early-career artists of color.
She currently resides in Mississippi, where she teaches creative writing to youth and adult writers.
