Melody S. Gee

Melody S. Gee was born in Taiwan and raised in Cerritos, California. She holds degrees in English from the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of New Mexico.

Gee is the author of three books of poetry: The Convert’s Heart Is Good to Eat (Driftwood Press, 2022), the runner-up for the 2022 Adrift Chapbook Prize; The Dead in Daylight (Cooper Dillon Books, 2016), long-listed for the 2016 Julie Suk Award; and Each Crumbling House (Perugia Press, 2010), winner of the 2010 Perugia Press Prize. She is also the author of We Carry Smoke and Paper: Essays on the Grief and Hope of Conversion (University of Iowa Press, October 2024), a finalist for The Hudson Prize. 

Gee’s other honors include Kundiman fellowships in poetry and fiction, a Sustainable Arts Foundation Award, Artist Support Grants from the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis, two Pushcart Prize nominations, and the Robert Watson Literary Prize.

Gee has taught writing at Purdue University, Southwestern Illinois College, and St. Louis Community College. She currently works as a communications strategist and lives in St. Louis.