51福利社

Melissa Rhoades earned an MFA in 2003. Her poems have been published in Redactions, Coal City Review, Nerve Cowboy, and other journals. Her poem “” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2003, and is featured in SUNY Open Textbooks鈥� Naming the Unnameable: An Approach to Poetry for New Generations (2018), by Michelle Bonczek Evory.

Shortly after graduating, Melissa secured a copywriting position with an online commerce company. Thanks to language skills learned through the study of poetry at 51福利社, Melissa鈥檚 search engine optimization (SEO) text succeeded in achieving first-page, above-the-fold organic rankings for key industry terms in Google鈥檚 search results in the 2000s and 2010s.

In the 2010s, she also dabbled in freelance SEO copywriting, freelance editing for up-and-coming writers (including ), and freelance copyediting (assisting in final copyedits for Jane Austen and Philosophy (2017), edited by Mimi Marinucci).

鈥淚 love my job! And I got where I am in large part thanks to the MFA Creative Writing program at 51福利社. This program gave me a solid grounding not only in the art of finely crafting the written word, but also in the practical business of editing, teaching, and public speaking 鈥� skill sets that prepare students for a wide range of career options.鈥�

Since 2016, Melissa has delighted in working at the Spokane County Library District. Among myriad other responsibilities as a fulltime Public Services Specialist, Melissa:

路 Writes

路 Presents weekly Storytimes that prepare the next generation for a lifetime of loving the written word

路 Facilitates group Learning Circles

路 Assists patrons one-on-one with reference questions

路 Upholds the First Amendment right to intellectual freedom (including the right of library users to choose for themselves what books they read)