Poems and Prose by Melissa Balmain

SELECTED POEMS

On Looking at an MRI Cross-SectionMarooned, and Caught in the Webb in Rattle

Sidewalk Face-Off, The Sheltering Suburbanite to Her Neighbor, and Thin Blue Logic in The American Bystander (For more of my pandemic-themed poems, go here.)

Niagara Overlook (Winner of 2020 Kim Bridgford Memorial Sonnet Contest)

Thumbelina Moves On in The Hopkins Review

Love Poem in American Life in Poetry

Best in ShowBackstories of Famous Paintings RevealedBeing the parent... , and Enfant Terrible in Lighten Up Online

Two Poems at 2013 Able Muse Book Award Winner Announcement

SELECTED HUMOR PIECES

Hemingway Updated for the Post-Roe Generation in McSweeney's Internet Tendency

What Some Poets Would Say If They Were Around for National Donut Day in McSweeney's Internet Tendency

Six Hundred Years of History, Explained by April Fools' Day in McSweeney's Internet Tendency

A Letter From the Easter Bunny to the World’s Candymakers, RE Upcoming Changes in Weekly Humorist

I'm the Couch You Left at the Curb, and I Am Pissed in Points in Case

My Shower-Mold Teacher in Little Old Lady Comedy

The Seventh Sense in Little Old Lady Comedy

Wes T. Satire... Is Dead in The Satirist

Bingeworthy New Kidlit Adaptations in Weekly Humorist

Who Are You Really? in McSweeney's Internet Tendency

What to Expect After Implantation of Your Newterus in Weekly Humorist

My Crossword Life

Before You Drop Your Child Off at Camp Honestee in McSweeney's Internet Tendency

How to Prepare for Nursing in Parenting

SELECTED COLUMNS and ARTICLES in Success

Can Tidying Up Your Home Fix Your Messy Life?

What Happened When I Tried to Stop Swearing

32 Nuggets of Wisdom (with a Twist)

How I Turned Weeping into Purpose in Mom's Last Days

BOOKS AND ANTHOLOGIZED ESSAYS AND POEMS

The Witch Demands a Retraction: Fairy-Tale Reboots for Adults, by Melissa Balmain; illustrated by Ron Barrett (Humorist Books)

Walking In on People, by Melissa Balmain (Able Muse Press)

Just Us: Adventures and Travels of a Mother and Daughter, by Melissa Balmain; illustrated by Gina Ingoglia (Faber and Faber)

"Love Poem," From the Finger Lakes: A Memoir Anthology (Cayuga Lake Books)

Ten poems in Extreme Formal Poems: Contemporary Poets (Beth Houston Publishing)

"To-Do," Houses and Homes Forever (Sampson Low); "Tale of a Relationship in Four Parts," Lost Love (Sampson Low).

"Marooned," Love Affairs at the Villa Nelle (Kelsay Books)

"Dorothy Parker's Ghost Weighs In on the New Political Climate," Nasty Women Poets: An Unapologetic Anthology of Subversive Verse (Lost Horse Press)

"Song of the Braball," Bared: Contemporary Poetry and Art on Bras and Breasts (Les Femmes Folles Books)

"Eve Gives a Pep Talk," The Great American Wise Ass Poetry Anthology (Lamar University Press)

"Facebook Psycho," Killer Verse: Poems of Murder and Mayhem (Everyman's Library Pocket Poets)

"Fluffy Weighs in on the Baby," The Iron Book of New Humorous Verse (Iron Books)

"Mother's Little Helpers," Unbuttoned: Women Open Up About the Pleasures, Pains, and Politics of Breastfeeding (Harvard Common Press)

"When Mommy Met Sally," How to Fit a Car Seat on a Camel: And Other Misadventures Traveling with Kids (Seal Press)

RECENT INTERVIEWS AND READINGS

It's All Write With Suzette: Interviewed by Suzette Standring; October, 2021

Rattlecast: Interviewed by Rattle Editor Timothy Green; June, 2021

Talkward: Interviewed by Weekly Humorist Publisher Marty Dundics; December, 2021

Poems On: Joint reading of "romantic" (and not-so-romantic) poems with Al Basile and Alfred Nicol, February, 2022