Melissa Connelly

Melissa Connelly dropped out of high school at age fifteen. In spite of this, she went on to receive a BSN in nursing, an MA in special education, and an MFA in creative writing. She’s had a long career working with children in a variety of roles in schools, hospitals, psychiatric clinics, and daycares. Her work has been published in American Heritage Magazine and the anthology, It’s All About Shoes, and she was a finalist for the 2019 Montana Prize.Her flash Fiction was published in Ruminate Magazine and they nominated for The Best Small Fiction Anthology in 2022. Connelly has a home in the mountains of Western North Carolina but lives most of the year in Brooklyn, New York.

Her novel, What Was Lost was a 2025 finalist for the Feathered Quill Award in Women's Fiction, The National Indie Excellence Award in Women's Fiction, The Page Turner Award in Women's Fiction and it won the Indie Reader Discovery Award for Best Cover.