Skyla Carmon (MFA, 2025) was a finalist for the Hurston/Wright Foundation Legacy Award in the “College Award” category for her MFA Thesis, “Tapped.”

In her artist’s statement, Skyla describes “Tapped” as “a project that seeks to capture intersectional and mundane complexities of college life at a fictional elite university through an intimate lens of the Black community on campus” and it develops themes of “belonging and displacement, memory, elitism, identity, tradition, secrecy, selectivity, trust, and the robust political nature of academia.” Overall, Skyla notes that her work “illuminates the nuanced complexities of the human experience.”

“I create stories that resonate on both personal and universal levels. I am rooted in my desire to wield language with precision and heart because of the stories and experiences passed down through my African-American & Creole heritage. My writing is not just about constructing a narrative but creating a space where my readers can see themselves, their struggles, and their triumphs reflected in unexpected ways. My approach to art and the cascade of encounters that ignite my ability to write what inspires me is an ode to the ancestors who did it first. I am merely a vessel. Fiction has the power to foster empathy, challenge assumptions, and illuminate the shared humanity that connects us all.”

The Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation Legacy Awards are intended to celebrate excellence in Black writers across various categories. It is a notable mark of distinction for Skyla to have been named a finalist for such an award.