Melissa Valentine’s debut memoir, The Names of All the Flowers, was named the 2019 winner of The Louise Meriwether First Book Prize and is forthcoming from The Feminist Press (July 2020).

A writer and an editor born and raised in Oakland, CA, Melissa received her BA from Sarah Lawrence College and her MFA from Mills College. Her work has appeared in Guernica, Jezebel, Apogee, Niche, Friends Journal, Sassafras, and Blackberry. She was a finalist for Glimmer Train’s Family Matters contest and her work received honorable mention for the Ardella Mills Nonfiction Award. Melissa has also been a fellow at the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto. Melissa is currently Executive Editor at Callisto Media in New York. She lives in Brooklyn.