Long Beach independent school, Coast Episcopal, and its third grade students, were fortunate to be touched by this year’s Homegrown Writers Festival last Friday, January 30, 2026. In its fourth year, the literary event expanded to four days across multiple venues and brought together 30 of the region’s most influential writers.
Coast Episcopal School’s third grade class traveled to the University of Southern Mississippi’s Gulf Park Campus to hear MacArthur Fellows Jesmyn Ward (2017) and Jason Reynolds (2024) in conversation. Ward, in addition to being the author of four novels and the recipient of multiple national awards, is a CES parent and former member of the school’s Board of Directors. Reynolds, also the recipient of multiple national awards, is a noted young adult fiction writer.
During the writers’ candid, insightful dialogue, attendees were able to hear from the authors and the unique path each followed in their writing journey. Reynolds shared that, throughout his writing tenure, he has used humor, which, he believes, brings light to darkness. Reynolds and Ward both spoke to the use of artificial intelligence and urged the attendees to appreciate that, though it can be used as a tool, it will never replace human creativity, which is filled with spirit and occasional flaws resulting in the uniqueness that art is.
Meanwhile, on the Coast Episcopal School Campus, Travel Writer Erin Austen Abbot, guest of Coastal Mississippi, the region’s convention and visitors bureau, returned to the school’s Gail Keenan Art Center where she met with GKAC Curator Ann Madden and CES Head of School Jake Winter. Abbot participated in the gallery’s 2024 Call of the Coast Show with physical art reflecting coastal adventures. Friday’s tour was conducted to familiarize her, as an author, with the impact the GKAC has on area school students, in addition to the Coast Episcopal students. Additionally, she learned about the school’s spring 2025 “School Waves” installation, a public art partnership of the MS Arts Commission, the Walter Anderson Museum, Studio Waveland, and CES families and donors that resulted in a colorful sculpture and exterior painting that connects the school’s Seemann Makerspace and the Gail Keenan Art Center.
Abbott was particularly interested in the amount of exposure the CES Students have to the professional art shows at GKAC that Madden curates three times a year. “Each of our professional shows is installed for 6-7 weeks, bringing the total number of weeks our students, who come to GKAC for art and music classes, to experience professional works for 18-21 weeks – approximately 50% of our school year.” Winter continued that another show featured annually at the school is “Children in the Arts” which is open to students throughout the region, kicks off at CES’ annual Toast to the Coast in October and then displayed at the gallery through December. Ann Madden added, “This gallery space is so special. I’d love to see every school as committed to art as Coast Episcopal School.”
