About the Author:

Melissa Carroll is a writer, yoga teacher, and creative writing instructor at The University of Tampa. She also loves hiking and taking naps. She’s the editor of Going OM: Real-Life Stories on and off the Yoga Mat (Viva Editions 2014), which features essays from Dani Shapiro, Neal Pollack, and many others, with a foreword by Cheryl Strayed. Melissa’s poetry chapbook The Karma Machine (YellowJacket Press 2011) received The Peter Meinke Award, and her work has been published in New South Review, Poetry Quarterly, MindBodyGreen.com, Contemplative Journal, The Literary Bohemian, and elsewhere. In 2011 Melissa was an artist-in-residence through the National Parks Service at The Petrified National Forest in Arizona. A lifelong talker, she’s appeared on Daytime TV, CBS San Francisco, iHeartRadio, America’s Meditating Radio Show, and many podcasts. Melissa leads yoga and creative writing retreats all over the place, from Costa Rica to North Carolina to Tuscany. Learn more about her here.

Latest essay up on Contemplative Journal.

Essay on The Gloria Siren’s Blog.