NATCHEZ – Junior Cooper Brumfield of Natchez is among the Mississippi School of the Arts students who captured nearly 100 awards in the helped the 2024 Regional Scholastic Writing Competition.

These talented young artists were recently recognized at an awards ceremony at the Eudora Welty House and Gardens in Jackson. MSA’s Literary program instructor is Dr. Nadia Alexis. Critical Essays were submitted by English/Literature students, taught by MSA English teacher, Tobie Lambert. In all, the MSA juniors and seniors won 99 awards.

Brumfield received three Gold Keys, one Silver Key and two Honorable Mentions

Students from all over Mississippi competed in the Mississippi Regional Competition.

Categories included critical essay, dramatic script, flash fiction, humor, journalism, novel writing, personal essay and memoir, poetry, science fiction and fantasy, short story and for seniors only, and writing portfolio which is for a body of work. The submissions are juried by artists in the field.

Among the thousands of writings submitted, only a small percentage will go to the national level.

Jurors look for works that exemplify the Awards’ core values: originality, technical skill and the emergence of personal voice or vision.

American Voices and Gold and Silver Key recipients will advance to the national competition.

MSA is an eleventh and twelfth-grade visual and performing arts residential, public high school located in Brookhaven.

Students not only meet and exceed the traditional Mississippi high school curriculum, but they receive special instruction in visual arts, vocal music, dance, writing/literary arts, filmmaking/media arts and theatre.