NEWS & EVENTS
January 2027
The Carnation Milk Palace: Stories
Bellevue Literary Press, NYC, editor and publisher Erika Goldman
February 18, 2026
Women’s Voices Book Club (virtual interview)
Bookworm Bookstore
Edwards, Colorado
Month of January 2026
Featured on Substack Blog series, host Cynthia Newberry Martin
How We Spend Our Days, Cynthia Martin’s review of Flight of the Wild Swan
Melissa Pritchard’s essay, with photos, on How We Spend Our Days
Tempest: The Story of Fanny Anne Kemble, Longlist, 2025 Petrichor Prize for Finely Crafted Fiction, Regal House Publishing
Flight of the Wild Swan, Finalist, 2025 Last Syllable, A Longform Literary Journal (winner announced 12/25)
July 1, 2025
2025 Georgia Author of the Year, FINALIST, Flight of the Wild Swan
June 13, 2025
Featured Guest: The Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust’s “Piper Conversations”
“Called to Serve: Florence Nightingale and Virginia G. Piper”
9:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Phoenix, Arizona
May 12, 2025
Invited Guest Journalist, The 60th Annual Florence Nightingale Commemoration Service
Westminster Abbey, London
6:30 p.m.
May 11 2025
ABC Radio Australia, “Overnights”
Interview with show host, Paul Verhoeven, on Florence Nightingale
and Flight of the Wild Swan
MAY 5, 2025
Judge, 16th annual ARTS & LETTERS Fiction Prize, Arts & Letters Journal, Georgia College
April 29th, 2025
Guest Author, “Don’t Eat Your Young,” A Nursing Podcast
Host Beth Quaas
February 21-22, 2025
Guest Author, Fiction Workshop leader
Carson McCullers Literary Festival
Columbus, Georgia
Savannah Book Festival, February 6-9, 2025
Invited Author and Presenter
Savannah, Georgia
savannahbookfestival.org
February 4, 2025, 10:30 a.m.
Guest Author 10 a.m.
Hunter Book Club
Columbus, Georgia
January 16, 2025
Guest Author 10:30-11:30 a.m.
St. Simon’s Literary Guild
St. Simon’s Island, GA
December 17, 2024
Guest Author, The Theological and Literary Book Club
Columbus, Georgia
3-5 p.m.
November 20, 2024
Invited Speaker on Florence Nightingale and Flight of the Wild Swan
11:30-12:30 p.m.
Kiwanis Club of Greater Columbus
Columbus, Georgia, 11:30-12:30 p.m.
November 15, 2024
Author presentation and reading from Flight of the Wild Swan,
2:00-3:00 p.m. EST
Spring Harbor at Green Island
Columbus, Georgia
November 7, 2024
Guest Author, 3:00 p.m., Rainey-McCullers School of the Arts
Columbus, Georgia
November 5, 2024
Guest Author and Speaker 10:30 a.m.
PEN Women of Columbus, Georgia
October 29, 2024
Melissa Pritchard “In Conversation With” Jessica Keener, 7:00 p.m.
Newtonville Books, Newton, Massachusetts
October 28, 2024
In Conversation With MGH Writer-in-Residence Suzanne Koven, MD, 6:00-7:00 p.m. EST
Russell Museum of Medical History and Innovation
Massachusetts General Hospital
Boston, MA
October 5-6, 2024
Decatur Book Festival
Decatur, Georgia
Historical Fiction panel with Tracey Emerson Wood and Moderator, Lynn Cullen
Oct 4, 2024
Interview with host Peter Biello on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered”
September 22, 2024
A reading at Lea Hurst, Florence Nightingale’s childhood home, 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.
ticket proceeds donated to local Derbyshire schools
September 19, 2024
A reading at the Florence Nightingale Museum, 2:00 p.m., St. Thomas’ Hospital, London
September 15, 2024
Tupelo Quarterly, TQ33, publication of essay, “Haunted by Florence Nightingale,”
Kristina Marie Darling, editor, North Adams, Massachusetts.
August 30th, 2024
The BBC’s History Magazine podcast, HistoryExtra, “Life of the Week” interview with Rachel Dinning (watch | listen)
August 23, 2024 | 1-2 p.m. EST
“Always Authors”: Apple Podcast with host Jackson Musker
Lauren Aliza Green (The World after Alice) in candid conversation with Melissa Pritchard (Flight of the Wild Swan)
June 23, 2024
Author talk and book signing, 11:00 a.m.
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
Columbus, Georgia
June 5, 2024 | 7 p.m.
Reading: Georgia Center for the Book, DeKalb Public Library
Decatur Georgia, Joe Davich, Executive Director
June 5th, 2024 Author Interview
NPR’s KJZZ Phoenix 91.5
“The Show” with host Lauren Gilger
May 15, 2024
Article in The Conversation
Florence Nightingale overcame the limits set on proper Victorian women – and brought modern science and statistics to nursing
May 12, 2024
Trinity Episcopal Church
Presentation, reading, book signing
9:30-10:30 a.m.
Columbus, Georgia
May 11th, 2024
Book Signing, Barnes and Noble Booksellers
1-3 p.m.
Columbus, Georgia
Episode with Melissa airs May 9, 2024
Nursedot PODCAST interview with host Cara Lunsford, RN, CPHON, VP of Community Nurse.com
available on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify
April 29, 2024 | 7-8 p.m.
Reading from Flight of the Wild Swan followed by Q&A and Book Signing
Changing Hands Bookstore
6428 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe, Arizona
April 26 and April 30
Radio Interview
“Moments with Marianne” with Marianne Pestana
KMET 98.1 FM & 1490 AM (ABC News Radio Affiliate) also YouTube
Tuesday 4/26 at 3 pm PT, 6 pm ET
Friday 4/30 at 10 am PT, 1 pm ET
April 24th airing at 5 p.m. and 10 p.m., same day
Author Interview
Arizona Horizon PBS, Ted Simons, host
April 23, 2024
“Flight of the Wild Swan: Florence Nightingale Re-imagined”
Presentation, Reading and Book Signing
Arizona State University’s Edson College of Nursing
ASU’s Downtown Phoenix
Student Center at the Post Office
522 N. Central Avenue
Phoenix, Arizona
April 20-21, 2024
2024 LA Times Festival of Books
Sunday, April 21, 3-4 p.m.
Panel: “Who Runs the World? Girls!”
with Lisa See, Melissa Pritchard, Cristina Henríquez
Moderator Donna Wares
Venue: Ronald Tutor Campus Center, Signing Area 3
March 21, 2024 | 4-5 p.m. Eastern
IMAGE online celebration of Flight of the Wild Swan
reading and conversation with executive editor, Mary Kenagy Mitchell
Register for free event:
Feb 28, 2024
Interview with host Peter Biello on Georgia Public Broadcasting’s “The Narrative Edge.”
Past News & Events
2024
April 16, 2024
Flight of the Wild Swan audiobook release, RB Media
Jayne Entwistle, narrator
March 19, 2024
New York Times, Reimagining Real Lives in the Best New Historical Fiction
March 15, 2024
LITERARY HUB, publication of essay, “Tolstoy and Nightingale: Binary Stars”
March 1, 2024
Feature Interview, March issue of The LocaL, arts and cultural events magazine, Columbus, Georgia
“Love Letters – an Exploration – with Melissa Pritchard”, Frank Etheridge, interviewer
March 2024
ASU NEWS, Arizona State University, interview with Emma Greguska, editor
BOOK Q&As with DEBORAH KALB, interview with Deborah Kalb, author & blog host
2023
“The Earth, Our Reliquary,” Conjunctions 81, Fall issue, 2023
July 16-22, 2023
Glen Workshop Faculty, Fiction
Center for Religious Humanism
Seattle Pacific University
Seattle, Washington
“Diving Beneath the Dead,” Chicago Quarterly Review Volume 37, Spring, 2023
“City of Paris,” Conjunctions 79, Fall, 2022
“Distinguished Story of 2023” Best American Short Stories, Min Jin Lee, guest editor
“Tsunami,” LitMag Issue 5, December 2022
“Flat Shoals,” storySouth, May 2022
February 21-22, 2020
Second Annual Carson McCullers Literary Festival
River Center for the Performing Arts
Columbus, Georgia.
With Melissa Pritchard, Sandra Meek and U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo
June 25, 2020
Interview: Friends of the Winthrop Public Library’s “Adult Author Talks”
Series including Ann Patchett, Phil Klay, Eliot Ackerman, Nancy Pearl and others.
June 28-July 4, 2020
“Art and Transformation”, The Wisdom School Doctoral Program
Ubiquity University
Chartres, France
July 25-31st, 2020
Glen Workshop Faculty, Fiction
St. John’s College
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Fiction Editor, IMAGE Journal, 2019-present
www.imagejournal.org
Pushcart Prize, “The Carnation Milk Palace”
2017 Pushcart Prize XLI, November, 2016
Recipient, The 2016 Marguerite and Lamar Smith Fellowship for Writers
The Carson McCullers Center for Writers and Musicians
Columbus, Georgia, September 1-December 1, 2016
Anthologies & Individual Publications
“La Bete: A Figure Study”
Reprinted in CHANGES, Stories about Transformation, From the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, University of Georgia Press, Athens, Ga., 2021
“Disturbing No One”
Reprinted in A PERFECT SOUVENIR, Stories About Travel From The Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, University of Georgia Press, Athens, Ga., September, 2020.
“Taking Hold of Renee”
Reprinted in THE SLOW RELEASE, Stories about Death, From the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, University of Georgia Press, Athens, Ga. 2019
“The Carnation Milk Palace”
Hingston and Olsen’s 2019 SHORT STORY ADVENT CALENDAR, pub date December 2019
Other authors include Anthony Doerr, Lauren Groff, Jack Pendarvis, Casey Plett, Omar El Akkad
“The Sherry and Therapy Society”
STORY, Fall Issue, 2019, Issue 6, edited by Michael Nye
Story Magazine
“Hotel Majestic”
Ploughshares, Summer 2016 issue
Guest-edited by Claire Messud and James Wood
“Special Mention” 2018 Pushcart Prize XLII
“Mrs. Wisdom”
Southwest Review
Fall Issue, 2016
2015 McGinnis-Ritchie Fiction Prize
“Distinguished Story”, Best American Short Stories 2016, editor Junot Diaz
Selected for inclusion in Subway Library, a 2017 initiative launched and curated by the
New York Public Library with the NYC MTA www.SubwayLibrary.com