Melanie Conklin
Writing Coach
Melanie Conklin is the author of five middle-grade books for children. Her debut, Counting Thyme, won the Nerdy Book Award, Bank Street Best Children’s Book, and the International Literacy Association Teacher’s Choice Award. She is a regular speaker at conventions including the National Council of Teachers of English Annual Convention, the ALA Midwinter Conference, BookExpo America, the Princeton Book Festival, and the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. Melanie won the prestigious Park Scholarship at North Carolina State University in its founding year, studying Product Design and English Literature. She co-directed the Everywhere Book Festival and was named an honoree by the Publishers Weekly Star Watch 2020.
Melanie Conklin grew up in North Carolina and worked as a product designer before she began her writing career. Her debut middle-grade novel, Counting Thyme, is a Nerdy Book Award winner, a Bank Street Best Children’s Book, winner of the International Literacy Association Teacher’s Choice Award, and a finalist for the Missouri Mark Twain Book Award, the Iowa Children’s Choice Award, the Illinois Bluestem Award, and the Arkansas Charlie May Simon Award. She is also the author of Every Missing Piece (Nebraska Golden Sower Award Nominee), A Perfect Mistake (Utah CLAU Beehive Book Award Nominee), Crushed (2024), and her debut picture book, When You Have to Wait (2024). Her work has been translated into German, Dutch, Farsi and Romanian.
Melanie speaks at national literacy events regularly, including the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Annual Convention, the American Library Association Midwinter Conference, Book Expo America (BEA), and the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. She has been a mentor for aspiring writers for six years and her mentees have gone on to sign with agents and publish over a dozen novels at Big Five publishers.
In 2020, when the world was in pandemic lockdown, Melanie co-directed the Everywhere Book Festival, a virtual gathering of kidlit authors, illustrators and books reaching more than 43,000 unique viewers from around the world. In addition to directing online sales to 60 independent bookstores that were affected by the coronavirus crisis, the festival also partnered with We Need Diverse Books to distribute books to schools, libraries and literacy programs in need across the U.S.A. For her work on the festival, Melanie was one of 40 publishing professionals named as honorees for the Publishers Weekly Star Watch 2020.
When she’s not writing, Melanie spends her time doodling and dreaming up new ways to be creative. She lives in Massachusetts with her family.
If you’re writing for children, you will find Melanie an experienced and motivating mentor.
Melanie’s Genres
- Children’s Fiction
‘Children’s books are not just stories written for young readers—they are an expression of their realities, their hopes, and their dreams. Never forget that as children’s writers, we are charged with this great duty.’
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