Melanie Brooks

Melanie Brooks is the author of Writing Hard Stories: Celebrated Memoirists Who Shaped Art from Trauma (Beacon Press, 2017). She holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast writing program. She has had numerous interviews and essays on topics ranging from loss and grief to parenting and aging, published in Psychology Today, HuffPost, Yankee magazine, The Washington Post, Ms. Magazine, Creative Nonfiction, and other notable publications. 

Her forthcoming memoir, A Hard Silence, about living with the ten-year secret of her father’s HIV before his death in 1995, will be published in September 2023 by Vine Leaves Press. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband, two children (when they are home from college), and two Labs.

Please visit the MFA in Creative Nonfiction Writing program page to learn about the curriculum, faculty, program options, and more.