Introducing the First Mississippi Youth Poet Laureate
Nadia Wright, a 19-year-old college student from Jackson, has been named the first-ever Youth Poet Laureate for the state of Mississippi.
The daughter of Tanji and Terrence Wright from Jackson, Wright is a 2025 graduate of Murrah High School. She is a rising sophomore at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, in Greensboro, N.C., where she is one of 15 students to receive a full scholarship through the prestigious February One Scholars program.
In 2024, Wright was named one of five National Student Poets, the nation’s highest honor for youth poets presenting original work, by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers.
Sasha Harvey of Starkville and Savannah Massey of Pelahatchie were named runners-up for Mississippi Youth Poet Laureate. Harvey, the daughter of Megan Bean and Benjamin Harvey from Starkville, will attend Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, this fall. Massey is a rising sophomore at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. Harvey is a 2026 graduate, and Massey is a 2025 graduate of the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science in Columbus.
The three finalists of the Mississippi Youth Poet Laureate competition were selected by Ann Fisher-Wirth, who was named Mississippi Poet Laureate in 2025.
“It is such a pleasure to name Nadia Wright as Mississippi’s first Youth Poet Laureate,” said Mississippi Poet Laureate Ann Fisher-Wirth. “Not only are her poems unflinching and passionate, but she has already committed herself wholeheartedly to community service and social justice. She and the two finalists, Sasha Harvey and Savannah Massey, make me know that the future of poetry in Mississippi is in good hands.”
Wright is now eligible to compete for South Regional Youth Poet Laureate. The National Youth Poet Laureate is selected from the four regional winners.
The National Youth Poet Laureate program was created by the nonprofit Urban Word NYC ten years ago. Inaugural Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman went on to national acclaim for her performance at the 2021 Presidential Inauguration. Today, over 70 cities and states participate in Urban Word NYC’s national network of Youth Poet Laureates.
The Mississippi Youth Poet Laureate is administered by the Friendly City Books Community Connection, a special project of the CREATE Foundation, with the support of the Mississippi Arts Commission and the University of Mississippi Department of English. As the nonprofit arm of the independent bookstore Friendly City Books, the Friendly City Books Community Connection collaborated with previous Mississippi Poet Laureate Catherine Pierce to produce the Young Writers’ Poetry Festival in 2025, and it also organizes the Possumtown Book Fest, which will hold its third annual festival on August 29, 2026, in Columbus, Miss.
