Melissa Ginsburg

Melissa Ginsburg is Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Mississippi, where she serves as Director of the Graduate Creative Writing Programs, overseeing both the MFA and PhD in English with Creative Writing Concentration. She is affiliated with the Department of English in the College of Liberal Arts and teaches a wide range of undergraduate and graduate courses in poetry, fiction, and American literature.

• B.A. in English, University of Houston (2001)
• M.F.A. in English, University of Iowa (Iowa Writers’ Workshop) (2005)

Her research and creative interests lie at the intersection of poetry, fiction, feminist ecopoetics, and mythological reinterpretation. Ginsburg’s work often explores the interplay between the domestic and the celestial, the personal and the environmental, through rich lyrical language and formal innovation. Her poetry collections, including Doll Apollo and Dear Weather Ghost, engage with themes of female identity, spiritual yearning, and ecological awareness. Her novels, The House Uptown and Sunset City, delve into Southern Gothic and urban noir traditions, respectively. Her creative output reflects a deep engagement with literary form, emotional complexity, and cultural mythology.

The body of her published work reveals a consistent focus on lyrical precision, emotional depth, and thematic exploration of identity, place, and myth. Her poetry frequently merges scientific and mythological imagery—especially around the Apollo moon landings—and examines domestic spaces through a feminist lens. Her fiction explores psychological landscapes and social decay, grounded in specific American regional settings.

She has received notable recognition for her work, including:

• Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Poetry Award
• South Arts 2024 Mississippi State Fellow for Literary Arts

Ginsburg is also an active literary citizen, serving as Associate Editor of Tupelo Quarterly. While no specific information is available about her advising of graduate students or external grants, her role as Director of Graduate Creative Writing Programs suggests significant mentorship and program leadership. Her poetry has been published in top-tier journals such as The New Yorker, Guernica, Kenyon Review, and Image. She lives in Oxford, Mississippi.