Melissa Joplin Higley

Melissa Joplin Higley is the Grand Prize winner of the 90th Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition. Melissa Joplin Higley has traveled internationally as a sound engineer and has worked as a trumpet teacher, yoga teacher, editor, manuscript reader, and writing consultant. She holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and teaches writing at SUNY-Purchase College. She currently lives in Mamaroneck, N.Y. with her husband and son.

Coping With Grief

Anticipatory Grief

My son, eight years old and afraid he’ll catch this virus and die, is already mourning. Even if I live to be old, he says,

December 3, 2021