Melissa McKinstry’s poetry has appeared in Adroit, Beloit, Rattle, Poetry Northwest, Tahoma Literary Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, and Best New Poets 2023, among other places. She’s been a semifinalist for the Chad Walsh Chapbook Prize and the Persea Lexi Rudnitsky First Book Prize, a finalist for the Autumn House Rising Writer Prize, a nominee for Best of the Net, and a four-time nominee for Pushcart Prizes. She’s recently been selected as a finalist for The Missouri Review Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize. In 2024, she was selected as the honorable mention in Ploughshares Emerging Writer’s Contest, second place for The Maine Review Environs Prize, finalist for the Tupelo Quarterly Poetry Prize, and finalist for the Ninth Letter Literary Awards, a Djanikian Scholar in Poetry at Adroit, and inaugural writer-in-residence at the Millay House Rockland, selected by Mark Doty.

Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, Melissa grew up on small farms in Oregon and Washington and later earned a BA in English Literature at the University of Washington, and more recently her MFA in poetry at Pacific University.

A love of literature, writing, problem-solving, and nurturing young artists and writers, inspired Melissa’s career teaching high school English, working on a team to establish the Coronado School of the Arts, and designing a secondary humanities curriculum based on the question How are we to live?

In 1996, Melissa’s son, Charlie, was born with an undiagnosed genetic disorder and required full care from birth. With a loving family and care community, Charlie lived 26 years. He passed away in 2022, and some of Melissa’s poetry explores the uncertainty of mothering a child with severe disabilities. Melissa’s daughter, Sarah Rose, champions quality care for patients and providers at Health and Hospitals in New York City.

Melissa and her husband Doug live, write, and design in San Diego. Since 2016 they have curated a Poet Tree in their neighborhood to foster community, curiosity, and beauty. Melissa also teaches yoga, volunteers on the Alumni Council for the Pacific University MFA program, and offers craft talks, workshops, and readings in person and online. She is honored to be research, editorial, and production assistant for her mentor, poet Ellen Bass.