Melissa Pritchard

Melissa Pritchard is the author of three short story collections, Disappearing Ingenue, The Instinct for Bliss, and Spirit Seizures, and two novels, Phoenix and Selene of the Spirits. Pritchard was awarded a Pushcart Prize for "Funktionslust," which appeared in The Paris Review. Her story "Salve Regina" was included in Prize Stories 2000: The O. Henry Awards. Among numerous other awards, she has received the Flannery O'Connor Award, the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize, and a Howard Foundation Fellowship from Brown University. She is Director of the M.F.A. Creative Writing Program at Arizona State University and is on the faculty of Spalding University.

Photo by Brandon Sullivan