Assistant Professor / Margaret R. Shuping Fellow
2011, MFA Creative Nonfiction Writing, Sarah Lawrence College
2006, BA, English, Creative Writing, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Bio
Melissa Faliveno is the author of the debut essay collection TOMBOYLAND, named a Best Book of 2020 by NPR, New York Public Library, Oprah Magazine, and Electric Literature, and recipient of a 2021 Award for Outstanding Literary Achievement from the Wisconsin Library Association. Her work has appeared in Esquire, Paris Review, Bitch, Literary Hub, Brooklyn Rail, Ms. Magazine, and the Millions, among others; received a notable selection in Best American Essays; and appears in the anthology Sex and the Single Woman: 24 Writers Reimgaine Helen Gurley Brown’s Cult Classic (Harper Perennial, 2022). Born and raised in small-town Wisconsin and a first-generation college graduate, Melissa earned her BA in English and creative writing from the University of Wisconsin and an MFA in nonfiction writing from Sarah Lawrence College. The former senior editor of Poets & Writers Magazine, Melissa has taught creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College, Kenyon College, Denison University, Catapult, and to incarcerated men and high school students in and around New York City. She is an assistant professor of creative writing at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill and on the MFA faculty at Vermont College of Fine Arts. www.melissafaliveno.com
To read more, visit my websitePublications:
- Tomboyland: Essays (Topple Books & Little A, 2020)
- “Tied, Tethered, Unfettered, Free” (Sex and the Single Woman: 24 Writers Reimgaine Helen Gurley Brown’s Cult Classic, ed. Eliza Smith and Haley Swanson, Harper Perennial, 2022)
- “In Our Own Time: Queer Temporality, Pride, and Diana Goetsch’s This Body I Wore” (Autostraddle, 2022)
- “The Landscape That Made Me” (Paris Review, 2020)
- “To Live Alone in the Woods and Write” (Literary Hub, 2020)
- “Why Our Gender Identity Language Isn’t Enough” (Esquire, 2020)
Awards
- 2021 Award for Outstanding Literary Achievement, Tomboyland, Wisconsin Library Association
- Fall 2022 Distinguished Visiting Writer, University of North Carolina–Wilmington
- Fall 2021 Visiting Writer, York College of Pennsylvania, York, PA
- Shearing Fellowship, Black Mountain Institute, Fall 2021
- 2020-2021 Kenan Visiting Writer, University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill
- Winter Shakers Writers Residency, Millay Colony for the Arts, Austerlitz, NY, 2019
- Winter Shakers Writers Residency, Millay Colony for the Arts, Austerlitz, NY, 2018
- Prairie Schooner Nonfiction Contest, Runner-Up, “The Finger of God,” judged by Esmé Weijun Wang, 2018
Courses Taught:
- English 138: Introduction to Creative Nonfiction
- English 208: Creative Nonfiction, Magazine Writing