Tiffany Melanson is a poet and arts educator with an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars. She is the author of the audio chapbook What Happens (EAT Poems), and her work is has appeared in POETRY Magazine, Bridge Eight, Coda Quarterly and Compose Journal. She was previously named a Bennington Writing Seminars Alumni Teaching Fellow and a Peter Taylor Fellow at the Kenyon Writers Workshop. In addition to her own poetic pursuits, Melanson teaches poetry workshops and oral interpretation at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts where she is also the faculty sponsor of Élan, an international student literary magazine, and co-director of the Douglas Anderson Writers’ Festival.
“I am working on a poetry project exploring the role of mass incarceration on familial bonds. Much of what I explore in my poetry references the desperate attempt to escape the legacy of past mistakes to create the possibility for renewed connection. Thematically I explore the complexities of sibling relationships within the context of divorced families, and issues of confinement and freedom, as in my brother’s imprisonment and within the larger legacy of slavery. There is also a reflection on the importance of consistency in relationships and how loss of connection can breed bitterness and misunderstanding. My hope is that my time at the Tin House residency will finally allow the time and support to develop this work into a book with the tentative title, Black Abstraction.”