Melissa Lee-Houghton

• Name — Melissa Lee-Houghton • Born — 1982 • Birthplace — Wythenshawe, England • Occupation — Writer, Poet • Awards — Somerset Maugham Award (2017)

Lee-Houghton was born in 1982 in Wythenshawe, England. Lee-Houghton began writing poetry in elementary school. As a child, she was "the victim of horrific sexual abuse" and was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder. In 1996, at age 14, she had a prolonged hospital stay in a psychiatric ward, during which she began writing letters and poetry. Lee-Houghton has stated, "Writing helped me feel as though I was releasing some of the anguish that I’d been forced to keep to myself." Two years later, Lee-Houghton became pregnant and homeless. In 2002, she was hospitalized for a mixed affective episode and given benzodiazepine, to which she became addicted. During this time, she was unable to keep writing, though she began again during a 2008 hospitalization. The following year, she finished her first book, A Body Made of You, which was published in 2011. Discussing the power of writing poetry for her, Lee-Houghton stated, "Writing poetry, for me, has an intoxicating effect akin to taking a drug - in many ways, it is a short-term, substitutive distraction. But it provides satisfaction, both through the act of creating and the subsequent rewards of earning money and the enthusiastic responses of others." Her poetry, essays, and short stories have been published in Granta, The White Review, and others. Aside from writing, Lee-Houghton regularly reviews submissions for The Short Review.

• Bite Your Tongue When You Give Me My Name (2009) • Patterns of Mourning: Poetry (2009) • A Body Made of You (2011) • Beautiful Girls (2013) • Sunshine (2016) • Cumshot in D Minor (2017) • The Faithful Look Away (2018) • That Lonesome Valley (2019)

• Cold Fire. Poetry inspired by David Bowie (2000) • Coin Opera 2, edited by Kirsten Irving and Jon Stone (2013)