By Caleb Youngblood, Public Relations Coordinator
October 30, 2026
Seven MSMS writers received recognition at last week’s Eudora Welty Writers’ Symposium. James Cancellare (poetry), Ananya Mantri (poetry), and Makayla Wrenn (nonfiction), won three of the top five awards in the annual Eudora Welty Ephemera Prize for High School Creative Writing competition. Additionally, Maya Diaz (poetry), Piper James (poetry), Kami Patrick (poetry), and Kate Wu (poetry) received honorable mentions.
The Ephemera Prize is named in honor of Mississippi University for Women alumna Eudora Welty and for one of the W’s early creative writing journals. The statewide contest is sponsored by the Department of Languages, Literature, and Philosophy at the W and is awarded in conjunction with the annual Eudora Welty Writers’ Symposium, which was held on campus October 22-24.
A $200 prize is awarded to the top five students, who were also invited to read their pieces at the Symposium. All seven of our students will have their works published online in this year’s Ephemera Prize anthology.