FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 14, 2010
Contact: Anika Mitchell Perkins
(662) 329-7124
aperkins@pa.muw.edu

MUW’s Smith awarded literary fellowship from Mississippi Arts Commission

COLUMBUS, Miss. – Dr. Michael F. Smith, assistant professor of English at Mississippi University for Women, has been awarded a $4,400 literary fellowship from the Mississippi Arts Commission (MAC). The award is part of the $1.64 million in grants MAC will award in 2010-2011.

"Mississippi artists continue to use their talents to showcase the value of arts to the state. The Mississippi Arts Commission is proud to support their efforts," said Malcolm White, executive director of the MAC.

Smith’s submission to the MAC was a novel-in-progress titled “The Sons of Thunder,” which is set on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

His fiction and non-fiction have appeared in numerous literary reviews, anthologies and newspapers. His previous awards include the Transatlantic Review Award for Fiction, Brick Streets Press Short Story Award and a fellowship with the Eur-Am Center for International Education in Pontlevoy, France. Smith has been invited to read his work in venues ranging from New Orleans to Boston to Manhattan.

He has taught creative writing at MUW since 2007. Smith is a graduate of Mississippi State University and the University of Southern Mississippi.

Established in 1968, the MAC is funded by the Mississippi Legislature, the National Endowment for the Arts, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mississippi, the Phil Hardin Foundation, Mississippi Endowment for the Arts and other private resources. The agency serves as an active supporter and promoter of arts in community life and in arts education.