WRITING

Melissa D. Johnston’s writing has been published in various journals, including Word and World, where she won the 2005 Doctoral Essay Prize with “Making Space: Silence, Voice, and Suffering.” Recently her poetry manuscript Encountering Crows finished as a semifinalist for the Joanna Cargill Coconut Book Prize for a First Book given by Coconut Press.

Her current book project explores bipolar experience, both her own and that given in others’ memoirs. She chronicles the intersection of societal norms of punishment (and reward) with the experience of those living with this mental illness, offering critique and a fresh perspective of society’s understanding of violence, relationship, and love.