Fiction:
- “Match Point” in Fractured Lit
- “At the Same Time” in Orca
- “The One That’s Not” in 3288 Review
- “You Can See Them Coming” in Zygote in My Coffee
- Trio of poems in Redivider
- Flash fiction in Nerve Cowboy
- Untitled poem in Pennsylvania English
- “London Bridge” in Wicked Local
Essays:
- “No Olympians Here” in Sheepshead Review
- Medium
Audio of previously published work
Lake St. Clair
When we see the third police car with its lights on turn north, I say “Something must be going on.” But maybe not. This is Grosse Pointe Shores, where the police response to a stabbing is the same as to late mail delivery. Then there is that red Coast Guard helicopter, silenced by our rolled-up…
How Guy Fieri Can Save Us All
In my first year composition classes, specifically ENG102, I introduced students to the basic structure of an argument by having them write an essay about anything they liked or didn’t like. What mattered is that they could support that opinion with 2-4 reasons, which were in turn supported by actual evidence. Some students addressed current…
Take It – For the NYC Midnight Microfiction Challenge
I participate in the NYC Midnight challenges because the totally random assignments force me out of my comfortable genres and patterns. Sometimes I forget to submit my entry, and sometimes I submit and do not advance, and sometimes I submit and advance. For the 2021 NYC Midnight Microfiction Challenge (100 words), I remembered to submit…
What Hath FarmVille Wrought?
In 2009 I had a newborn, a recently vacated teaching position, and all the slow-rolling expansive days that come with those things. My cell phone could only call, text, and take blurry pictures. I had a first-generation iPod Touch, with a handful of poorly designed word game apps that I would play, in total darkness,…
Rolling Panda: Not a successful parenting strategy, but my reality anyway.
I am not a mama bear. I think I would be better likened to an animal that has to hold back tears following any slight directed toward my kids.
Why I’m finally filling out your dumbass Facebook survey
Every now and then a survey circulates on Facebook where parents are prompted to ask their child a series of questions. The questions vary slightly, but parents are supposed to record, faithfully, their child’s responses whatever they may be. It is sweet and entertaining – kids say the darndest things, after all. Parents post the…
Melissa Sharpe is a Detroit-area writer who also works in higher education. Caretaker to two children and a Maine Coon.
Melissa Sharpe 