Melanie Pappadis Faranello

Writer Bio

Melanie Faranello is an award-winning writer living in CT. Her writing has been twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize and shortlisted for Sarabande Books’ Mary McCarthy Prize in Fiction; The Dana Awards for the Novel; William Faulkner's Wisdom Competition in the Novel;  Glimmer Train’s Very Short Fiction Contest; The Petrochino Reprint Award; as well as winner of  the Marianne Russo Award for novel-in-progress from Key West Literary Seminars and winner of The New School Chapbook Competition in Fiction . Her writing has appeared in StoryQuarterly, Blackbird, Huffington Post Personal, Vestal Review, Fifth Wednesday Journal , StorySouth, Connotation Press, Requited, Literary Mama, among others. The recipient of a CT Individual Artist Fellowship Award in Fiction, she received her MFA in Creative Writing from The New School. 

She's the founder of  Poetry on the Streets, LLC, which was featured on NPR, and has received multiple grants to support this project for community engagement and social impact. She's a Creative Community Fellow with National Arts Strategies; a teaching artist certified Kingian Nonviolence; a global-cohort member of The Pollination Project's Greenhouse- a worldwide project for artist change-makers.

Originally from Chicago, Melanie has lived and worked as a teaching artist in New York City, Chicago, Boulder, Hartford, and Cuenca, Ecuador. She studied in Nepal, where her field research was recording Limbu oral folklore from the Northeast Himalayas. She currently lives with her family in West Hartford, CT, teaches creative writing in the community, leads projects through Poetry on the Streets both locally and globally, and is at work on her writing. Her completed manuscripts include two novels (literary fiction), a collection of short stories, and a collection of creative non-fiction. 

Her belief in fiction as a vehicle for connection, as well a way to explore the human condition, is the thread that connects her work as a fiction writer with her public art work in the community. 

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For inquiries about workshops or to say hello,  send a message on the contact page


Interviews & CV

CV

                ADJUNCT PROFESSOR

University of Chicago, Graham School of General Studies, The Writer's Studio, Novel Writing 

Roosevelt University, Chicago, Composition

American Academy of Art, Chicago, Literature, Composition, Research, MFA, Artists in Literature 

International Academy of Design and Technology, Chicago, Composition

Katharine Gibbs College, NYC, Literature, Composition, Writing

Goodwin College, CT, Reading and Writing

                       ESL & INTERNATIONAL  

Parsons School of Design, NYC, ESL

MacCormac College, Chicago, ESL

CENTRO DE ESTUDIOS INTERAMERICANOS, Cuenca, ECUADOR, EFL, Cross-Cultural Literature, Writing

                TEACHING ARTIST

Charter Oak Cultural Center, Hartford, CT, 2016-present, Creative Writing for Youth and Teens

*Honored for Teacher of the Month- 2022 https://charteroakcenter.org/charter-oak-yai-instructor-honored/

Hartford Performs, Hartford Public Schools, 2018- present, creative writing workshops 

CT Office of the Arts, Directory of Teaching Artists/ CT Center for Nonviolence- certification in Kingian Principles of Nonviolence for teaching artists

JCC of Greater Hartford, West Hartford, CT 2016, fiction workshops 

Kingswood Oxford Summer Camp, West Hartford, CT, 2017 & 2023, middle school creative writing camp

The Mark Twain House Writing Program, Hartford, CT, 2013/15, short story writing; fiction writing

Connecticut Humanities Council Grants: YWCA, “Words in Motion: A Creative Writing and Yoga Workshop for Teen Girls”, Hartford, CT, 2014, Girlcott Sponsor 

Senior Voices: Poetry and Yoga Workshop for Seniors, FEDERATION SQUARE RESIDENCE, West Hartford, CT, 2013

StoryStudio Chicago, Chicago, IL.2007-2010, short story, fiction workshops for adults

Gallery 37 After School Matters: “WORDS 37”, Manley High School, Chicago, IL

NYC Parks, Arts Enhanced After School Programs

Poetry Center of Chicago: “Hands on Stanza’s” Program

                        Boards/Affiliations

The Pollination Project, Grantee Community and Greenhouse Global Cohort- 2022

Creative Community Fellows, National Arts Strategies 2019 New England Cohort- 2019

Narrative 4- Artist Network & Story Exchange Facilitator

CT Center for Nonviolence- Trained Teaching Artist - 2022

Greater Hartford Arts Council, Artist Advisory Committee Member- 2021

CT Directory of Teaching Artists


 Editorial/Curitorial

Founder of Sunday Salon Chicago: A Reading Series: 2006-2009

Make Magazine; a Chicago Literary Magazine, Fiction Reader, 2007-2009


Using Format