Melinda Palacio

Melinda Palacio is a poet, novelist, and speaker based in Santa Barbara and New Orleans. She served as Santa Barbara's Poet Laureate for 2023-2025. Her novel Ocotillo Dreams won the Mariposa Award for Best First Book in 2012. Her poetry collection Bird Forgiveness was published by 3: A Taos Press and is her third collection of poems. Her earlier collection How Fire Is a Story, Waiting came out from Tia Chucha Press in 2012.