Melanie Neilson is a poet based in Queens, NY. She is the author of 5 collections of poetry. Her latest is Alsop's Tables (Ragged Sky, 2022) a chapbook collaboration with poet Jessica Grim. Her previous books include Natural Facts (Potes & Poets Press, 1997), Civil Noir (Roof Books, 1991), Reader Souvenir (FS Projects, 2018), and Prop and Guide (Figures Press, 1991). In 2021 Neilson and Grim completed The Autobiography of Jean Foos, a collaborative poem-novella. Excerpts have appeared in Chicago Review, Conjunctions, and BOMB Magazine.
Her poetry has appeared in over 20 anthologies, including Saints of Hysteria: A Half-Century of Collaborative American Poetry, ed. David Trinidad (Soft Skull Press), Out of Everywhere, Linguistically Innovative Poetry By Women in North America & the UK, ed. Maggie O'Sullivan (Reality Street, London), American Poetry States of the Art, ed. Bradford Morrow (Conjunctions 35, Bard College), French Poetry in Translation: Twenty-two New (to North America) French Poets, eds. Stacy Doris and Norma Cole (Raddle Moon, Canada), Moving Borders: Three Decades of Innovative Writing by Women, ed. Mary Margaret Sloan (Talisman House Publishers), Ten American Poets, TXT, Bilingual Edition (English/French), eds. Charles Bernstein and Susan Howe, translated by Raymond Federman (TXT, Brussels), Inventory: Object Anthology, ed. Robert Fitterman, and Rage Baking: The Transformative Power of Flour, Fury, and Women’s Voices, eds. Kathy Gunst and Katherine Alford (Tiller Press, 2020).
Prizes won include a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry and grants awarded from Brooklyn Arts Council, Fund for Poetry, Canada Arts Council (Literature/Curatorial for "Canadian Poets In NYC" Segue series at Ear Inn), New York State Council for the Arts (Literary Publication for Big Allis, 1989-1999), Artists Space, and American Media.
Also known for important editorial and publishing work, Neilson edited and co-founded the literary journal Big Allis with Jessica Grim. It generated a dynamic forum for writing by emerging and established experimental poets with a focus on innovative poetry by women. Big Allis is digitally reissued via Eclipse, a free online archive of radical small-press writing (http://eclipsearchive.org/authors.html). The magazine is also available at Jacket2 Reissues, an archival platform for magazines committed to poetry and poetics (https://jacket2.org/reissues/big-allis). Jacket2 is associated with PennSound and the Kelly Writers House at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.