Melissa Ridley Elmes is a Virginia native currently living in Missouri in an apartment that delightfully approximates a hobbit hole. Her poetry and fiction have appeared in Black Fox, Poetry South, Haven, Star*Line, Dreams and Nightmares, and various other print and web venues. Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Dwarf Star and Rhysling awards for speculative poetry, and her first collection of poems, Arthurian Things, was published by Dark Myth Publications in 2020 and nominated for the Elgin award. Her second collection, Dreamscapes and Dark Corners, was published by Alien Buddha Press in 2023.