MCC Daily Tribune
Angelique Stevens Awarded a 2026 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in Nonfiction Literature
Angelique Stevens, MCC English/Philosophy professor and alum, is one of 116 New York State artists among to be recognized with a 2026 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship. Angelique is among two other Rochester nonfiction writers Anastasia Nikolis and Leila Nadir, to be recognized with this honor. Through her fellowship, Angelique will complete her essay collection about growing up in poverty and the myth of the American Dream due out from Simon & Schuster late 2027. The NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship Program, administered by New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) with leadership support from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), makes unrestricted cash grants of $8,000 to artists working in 15 disciplines, recognizing five disciplines per year on a triennial basis. This year, NYFA has awarded a total of $903,000 to 132 artists (116 Fellows and 16 Finalists) throughout New York State in the following disciplines: Craft/Sculpture, Digital/Electronic Arts, Nonfiction Literature, Poetry, and Printmaking/Drawing/Book Arts. The program is highly competitive, and this year’s recipients and finalists were selected from 3,985 in discipline-specific peer-review panels.
Angelique Stevens’ nonfiction has been published in Best American Essays two years in a row: 2022, edited by Alexander Chee and 2023 edited by Vivian Gornick, Granta, LitHub, The New England Review, and a number of anthologies. She holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Bennington College and an MA from SUNY Brockport in Literature. She has received fellowships from Art Omi, MacDowell, Hedgebrook, Writers & Books, Bread Loaf, Tin House, Kenyon Review, Sewanee Writers Workshops, the Periplus Mentorship Collective, and the Lighthouse Book Project. She finds her inspiration in wandering—being in places that push the boundaries of comfort, experience, knowledge, and hunger.
Since it was launched in 1985, the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship program has awarded over $37.4 million to 5,726 artists.
Each year, the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship provides a lens for contemporary artistic expression. The themes, ideas, and materials used by the 2026 Fellows and Finalists are grounded in lived experience, personal perspectives, and cultural specificity–from identity and community to immigration and the diaspora; artificial intelligence; and a broad range of social, political, and economic issues. In addition to no-strings-attached financial support, the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship provides encouragement for artists at all career stages and creative disciplines to continue making work.
Catharine Smith
Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
09/04/2026