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Melissa Joplin Higley is the author of the poetry chapbook First Father (Bottlecap Press) and the micro chapbook We Shake & Seek (Origami Poems Project).
Photo courtesy of Nina Kruse
Melissa holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, where she was a Jane Cooper Fellow. She co-founded and co-facilitates the Poetry Craft Collective, works as MER–Mom Egg Review Book Reviews Co-Editor and curator of Bookshelf, and serves as the 2024-2026 Poet Laureate of Mamaroneck, NY. She has traveled internationally as a sound engineer with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble and Disney’s The Lion King North American Tour, and she has worked as an adjunct lecturer in writing, a manuscript reader, and a writing consultant. Melissa lives near the Long Island Sound with her multi-generational family and four tuxedo cats.