Melissa Shepherd holds a BA in English literature and poetry from Binghamton University, where she was the recipient of the Andrew Bergman Award for Creative Writing. She will receive an MFA from the Naslund-Mann School of Writing at Spalding University in May 2026, and recently completed her first collection of poetry, Keys to the Emptying House. Her work appears and is forthcoming in Good River Review.

When she’s not writing or doing editorial work, Melissa paints. Large-scale abstract acrylics are her specialty. She also advocates for the arts as a member of the board of trustees of Mile Square Theatre in Hoboken, NJ, where she lives with her husband and two teenagers.