Author • Teacher • Midwesterner lost in California

Publications

FICTION

Masquerade by Melissa Bowers

MASQUERADE

SmokeLong Quarterly

Grown-Ups Also Lie: Three Micros by Melissa Bowers

GROWN-UPS ALSO LIE: THREE MICROS

Fractured Lit

Everything Slippery and Gone by Melissa Bowers

EVERYTHING SLIPPERY AND GONE

Atticus Review

Non-Exhaustive List of Ways to Leave and Be Lost by Melissa Bowers

A NON-EXHAUSTIVE LIST OF WAYS TO LEAVE AND BE LOST

Pidgeonholes

nominated for Best Small Fictions 2021

ANIMAL BEHAVIOR

CHEAP POP

nominated for Best Small Fictions 2021

Things That Need to Go by Melissa Bowers

THINGS THAT NEED TO GO

Lunate

flash fiction competition, 2nd place

The Acquittal by Melissa Bowers

THE ACQUITTAL

Breakwater Review

Winner of the 2020 Breakwater Fiction Prize, chosen by Susanna Kaysen

Sometimes a Guardrail is Missing by Melissa Bowers

SOMETIMES A GUARDRAIL IS MISSING

Barren Magazine

shortlisted for the 2019 Flash Fiction Prize

A Collection of Cells by Melissa Bowers

A COLLECTION OF CELLS

Pithead Chapel

Larry Brown Short Story Award, 2nd place

Queen of Hearts by Melissa Bowers

QUEEN OF HEARTS

Pithead Chapel

Larry Brown Short Story Award, 3rd place

Gag Order by Melissa Bowers

GAG ORDER

Bending Genres

NONFICTION

Sign Language Connects My Children to Their Grandmother by Melissa Bowers

SIGN LANGUAGE CONNECTS MY CHILDREN TO THEIR GRANDMOTHER

The Boston Globe Magazine

Balancing Blocks by Melissa Bowers

BALANCING BLOCKS

The Writer

Winner of the 2017 Personal Essay Contest

ONLY IN PRINT:

“Small Glass Jars” – Restore to Factory Settings, Bath Flash Fiction Anthology, Vol. 5

FINALIST:

2020 Bridport Flash Fiction Prize (shortlisted)
2020 Contest for Creative Nonfiction, Hippocampus Magazine (longlisted)
2020 Conger Beasley Jr. Award for Nonfiction, New Letters
2020 Anton Chekhov Prize For Very Short Fiction, New Flash Fiction Review
2020 Beacon Street Prize for fiction, Redivider
2020 Lamar York Short Fiction Prize, Chattahoochee Review
2020 New Millennium Flash Fiction Award #50
2020 New Millennium Flash Fiction Award #49
2020 Tucson Festival of Books Literary Awards
2019 Gabriele Rico Challenge for Creative Nonfiction, Reed Magazine
2019 Barry Lopez Nonfiction Contest, Cutthroat

HONORABLE MENTION:

2020 – Writer’s Digest 89th Annual Writing Competition, Mainstream/Literary category

FEATURES & SYNDICATIONS: