Just like Melanie, Alexis scored her role at Vine Leaves Press by first becoming an author here. Her memoir in vignettes, Not a Place on Any Map, was the winner of the 2016 Vine Leaves Press Vignette Collection Award. Her second book, Work Hard, Not Smart: How to Make a Messy Literary Life, also from Vine Leaves Press, is a memoir of writing craft and neurodivergent creativity. Alexis began editing for Vine Leaves in 2017, doing dozens of copy and development edits on manuscripts of all genres. This editing work, plus her ongoing nonfiction writing, led to her current role as Creative Nonfiction Acquisitions Editor. While she continues to do development editing, Alexis also helps to shape and grow the Press’s catalog of nonfiction writers.
Her essays appear widely in literary journals and anthologies, including Longform, The Rumpus, Hippocampus, Fourth Genre, The Pinch, and on Brevity, where she was an Assistant Editor from 2013-2019. Winner of the New Millennium Nonfiction Prize, Alexis has also received “Notable” mentions in Best American Essays and multiple Pushcart Prize nominations. Assistant Professor of English at Vermont Technical College, she holds an MA in poetry and an MFA in nonfiction. Alexis lives in Vermont with her husband and a rotating cast of rescue animals. |
As well as being a development editor for the press, she also has a hand in choosing which books will get published. She is one of the people behind the scenes who the publisher passes full manuscripts to when they need to be considered for publication. If Melissa says it's a firm yes, then the chances are, you're in!
Melissa has a B.A. in Creative Writing from Warren Wilson College in Asheville, N.C. Her work can be found in the Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, San Pedro River Review, Best of Vine Leaves Literary Journal 2015, Pinesong, the South Carolina Yearbook, Apalachee Review, Comstock Review, Lyric Magazine, The Poet’s Word, and TINGE. She currently plays keyboard for Kael Jackson. |