A Writing Life
“First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you’re inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won’t. Habit is persistence in practice.” ~ Octavia E. Butler
I am interested in story as medicine, especially its ability to heal historical trauma among Indigenous communities. My writing blends traditional and contemporary storytelling and focuses on ancestral connection, culture, place, spirituality, and identity. As a Native American transracial adoptee (TRA) it is important to me that the stories of Native TRAs are heard and understood as part of the story of Native people in the U.S. and Canada - a topic I am currently exploring as a 2023 Oregon Humanities Community Storytelling Fellow. I believe story saves lives - seeing ourselves represented on the page or stage or in film or a painting, affirming we are not alone in our experiences and feelings, reminding us what holds meaning and value, understanding our histories and dreaming up what our futures can be - all of it returns us to our humanity and to our connection to one another. Stories help us care.
For additional thoughts on storytelling, storylistening, writing, spiritual life, and culture check out this interview: Abundant Listening - a conversation between Melissa Bennett and Elizabeth Harlan-Ferlo
Selected Publications
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Oregon Humanities Magazine
A transracial adoptee’s bittersweet search for her Indigenous roots.
“She never told anyone the story of my birth because she said, ‘You are the only one who has shared the deep pain and loss of this separation with me.’”
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The 3rd Thing Press
A series of poems that appear in the 2020 3rd Thing Press cohort of books. These poems reflect the ways in which our lives are intertwined with the stories and memories of our ancestors and our descendants.
“Holy underground / all mystery and cold / my starry night / I smell onions in my blood / hunger for nostalgia / nowhere I look is home”
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Poets Against Walls
A poem filmed in El Paso, Texas at an historic mission site near the U.S./Mexico border wall. “Poets Against Walls” records empowering poetry in politically charged spaces to speak out against border walls and immigration policies in the U.S.
“I want medicine hair / I want peyote on my breath hair / cedar on my skin hair / huckleberry under my fingernails hair / I want ‘I’m still alive’ hair / the kind of hair that brings all the ancestors back home”
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Indigenous Goddess Gang
For this “Word to Your Mother” segment Indigenous Goddess Gang features the survivance poetry of Melissa Bennett. Three poems, “Liberation,” “Indian Hair,” and “Trauma” are printed here.
“Secrets they thought were left in the Blue Mountains / behind the church at Tutuilla / at the mouth of the Columbia / in the cold grey water of the Pacific / will rise up as ash, as fragments of bone, as droplets of blood / and join together to form a cloud / a shape / a figure / one ghost made of many women”
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Yellow Medicine Review: 10th Anniversary Retrospective
10th Anniversary edition featuring the work of contributors from the last decade. Editor Judy WiIson writes, “The work here represents more than a mere decade. This work has been in the creation stage for hundreds of years, teased from the memory of DNA and woven into every spring since. It is old. It is new. It is eveerything in between.” Melissa has two poems featured here, “Church of Frida” and “FSU Goes to the Rose Bowl.”
“My auntie told me that each of our stories is a small piece of the whole and in bringing them together, we remember who we are and heal. That is why I write.”
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Survivance Vol. II
Survivance is a collection of Indigenous poetry that highlights Indigenous narratives in order to heal, inform, empower, and mobilize Indigneous communities. Influenced by the social impact game Survivance created by Dr. Elizabeth LaPensée, this collection of poetry came together and acts as a bridge between Indigenous tribes from the colonized lands of Canada and the United States of America. This issue features six Indigenous authors including 3 poems by Melissa Bennett (“Boys and Coyote,” “Night Poem,” and “Trauma.)”
“afraid of the grandmothers who chase after me in dreams / I have come too close to their secrets”
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Yellow Medicine Review: The Most Beautiful Pow Wow in the World"
Fall 2015 issue guest edited by Jerry Brunoe. A journal of Indigenous literature, art, and thought. Melissa has two poems in this issue: “August 11th at Mabel’s” and “FSU Goes to the Rose Bowl”
“I want the magpies to come back / and wait for blue corn muffin to fall on the ground. / I want blue corn muffins. / And migas.”
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Four Winds: A Native American Literary Journal
An online journal - this issue was titled “Taking Back Tiger Lily. Strong Women Edition” and was a collection of work reflecting on the racist imagery of “Tiger Lily” in J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan. This issue included Melissa’s poem “Neverland.”
No Longer Available Online
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The Woman I've Become
An anthology of 37 stories by women who have overcome the odds to survive abuse. It includes Melissa’s essay “The Woman I’ve Become.”
“It is true that my ex-husband was abusive. He worked very hard to keep me feeling small, inadequate, and unworthy. I spent my time believing he loved me and would change. I was not in love with him. I was in love with my idea of what he might one day become.“
Selected Events
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La Palabra Summer Poetry Series
10 Poets in 10 Weeks summer reading series hosted by author Angelina Sáenz at the start of the pandemic. La Palabra, a program of the Avenue 50 Studio, has been taking place since 2001. Melissa was the featured poet in August 2022.
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Heretic Poets Rewriting Sacred Texts
How do we reimagine our sacred texts in ways that free them (and us) from colonization and oppression? A panel of poets engaged with their own faith traditions discusses the challenges and excitement of retelling inherited sacred narratives, especially for those of us in queer, femme, or nonbinary bodies, and indigenous or previously colonized communities.
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The 3rd Thing Presents: Words & Moving Images
Launch of the 2020 Cohort with readings from cohort book authors joined by Melissa Bennett whose poetry is featured in all four titles as part of a land acknowledgement.
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2019 Macondo Writers Workshop: Open Mic
Open Mic Night for the Macondo Writers Workshop. Every summer members of the Macondo Writers Workshop gather in San Antonio, Texas to participate in events, workshops, and writing practice further deepening their work in community.
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Haunted Healing San Francisco: Confronting Intergenerational Trauma Through Film & Poetry
A repeat performance of the Seattle event - Daryn Wakasa and Melissa Bennett share their creative work and discuss the ways in which making art has helped them confront and heal their own historical trauma. This program is held in conjunction with “Then They Came For Me: Incarceration of Japanese Americans During WWII and the Demise of Civil Liberties,” a special multimedia exhibit featuring imagery by noted photographers commissioned by the U.S. government's War Relocation Authority.
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An Evening of Poetry & Prose with Macondistas
The Macondo Writers Workshop is an association of socially-engaged writers working to advance creativity, foster generosity, and serve community. Founded in 1995 by writer Sandra Cisneros, the workshop gathers writers from all genres who work on geographic, cultural, economic, gender, and spiritual borders. Join us for an evening of poetry and prose by Macondistas from across the country.
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Story is a Chance: Writing as Spiritual Practice
Gerald Vizenor (Anishinaabe) wrote, “Life is a chance, a story is a chance. That I am here is a chance.” Our lives are miracles tied to the lives of our ancestors and to the lives of our descendants. All of the moments, big and small, that brought us to this point have meaning and significance. In this workshop, we will utilize sitting and walking meditation, as well as writing practice to slow down and listen to our own stories. We will share our work with each other, trusting in the chance to create change in the world and imagine new possibilities for our future.
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Haunted Healing Seattle: Confronting Intergenerational Trauma Through Film & Poetry
Traces of America's dark history still haunt us today. Join us as we confront this haunting through art and conversation. The program will feature a screening of Daryn Wakasa's short horror film, SEPPUKU (2017) and poetry from author Melissa Bennett. Wakasa and Bennett will then discuss their work in conversation, exploring overlaps in Japanese American and Indigenous history, and creative possibilities for healing in community.
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De-canon: Whitenoise Project
Announcing our second of two great events for the month of August! Join us as we return to the De-Canon pop up library and Residency at Artists' Milepost where we will continue to remake the literary canon with several fantastic BIPOC artists and poets.
Awards and Fellowships
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Oregon Humanities Community Storytelling Fellowship
This fellowship supports people who belong to communities that are underrepresented in Oregon media in sharing stories from those communities. For this project, Melissa is writing about Native American transracial adoptees in Oregon.
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Macondo Writers Workshop
The Macondo Writers Workshop is an association of socially-engaged writers working to advance creativity, foster generosity, and serve community. The workshop gathers writers from all genres who work on geographic, cultural, economic, gender, and spiritual borders and who are committed to activism in their writing and work.
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s'gʷi gʷi ʔ altxʷ (The House of Welcome) Native Creative Development Grant
A grant for Native artists who are working to strengthen Native art forms, practice, and knowledge of traditional and contemporary art through creative development.
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Puschart Prize - Poetry (nomination)
A literary series and award highlighting writers across genres who have published with a small press. Melissa has been nominated twice, both times by the editors of Yellow Medicine Review: A Journal of Indigenous Literature, Art, and Thought.