Melanie Graham

Melanie Graham Bio

Melanie Graham wrote Short Kutz while raising 3 children on her own. Since publishing in 1991 she joined the Canadian Navy and is now a Naval Public Affairs Officer working for 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group in Edmonton.

Graham has served in a variety of capacities with the military including: Liaison Officer for the USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74)USS; Base Tours supervisor CFB Esquimalt, a community outreach program that trains and employs University of Victoria students as summer guides for the base; and, Assistant Adjutant at the Transport Unit of Canadian Force Base Esquimalt.

Graham was with Lord Strathcona’s Horse (Royal Canadians) and deployed with them in early 2010 to Vancouver as the Public Affairs Officer for Task Force Vancouver. This task force represented a component of Operation PODIUM, a joint RCMP-led security support operation for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Graham completed a BA in International Studies at the University of British Columbia in 1996 and will finish her MA on Strategic Culture this summer (2010) having submitted the thesis draft earlier this spring. A publisher has already expressed interest in an expanded version of the thesis for publication.

Graham has three grown children and enjoys an active outdoor lifestyle in her spare time.

With regards to Short Kutz, the rights to the books and the concept have reverted to Graham and the patterns on which the book was based have been given to her new daughter in law Morija, a talented fashion and fabric designer - to carry on. Look for a resurfacing in Vancouver BC in the months to come.

Other books pending one retirement hits in 2012 - a kids series, a book of poetry, and a couple of fictionalized fact pieces recounting Graham's fun with the military and a successful battle with breast cancer.