Melinda Cochrane is a poet and fiction writer. She received the Mary Belle Campbell Scholarship for poetry and teaching from the North Carolina Writers’ Network. Her first YA novel, Desperate Freedom, was nominated for best book of the year in 2013 by the Quebec Writers’ Federation. Her work appears in online magazines and blogs such as Life as a Human (regular writer), where she is a regular writer. She has been long listed for the Fermoy International Poetry Contest in Ireland. She has read in Bournemouth, North Carolina, and spoke at Dawson College’s Anti-Violence Conference in 2011 and at the Bronfman Jewish Education Centre in 2018. She also did a PED talk at McGill University where she spoke to young aspiring teachers.