Melinda won the 2014 Prime Minister's Literary Award for her fourth book of poems, Drag down to unlock or place an emergency call. Her poems have appeared widely in Australia and overseas over the past 20 years and have also been set to music, hung on gallery walls, featured on postcards and appeared on ACTION buses. She has also practised as a government lawyer and IT law specialist, and lectured at the ANU College of Law on Decision Support Systems, Privacy and Information Technology. Her fifth poetry book is due out in late 2016.

• Won the David Campbell Prize in 2006 and received a 2011 artsACT New Project grant.
• Won the 2013 ACT Writing and Publishing Award for First... Then...
• Poetry Editor of The Canberra Times (2015 - 2017).