About

Hello, fellow readers!

I’m Mel.

I started Equal Opportunity Reader in early 2020 to focus on diverse books, diverse writers, and diverse readers. That means writers and books for and about those of us who are racially diverse, culturally diverse, gender diverse, LGBTQIA+, poor, neurodivergent, disabled, historically under-represented, any combinations of the above, or otherwise historically misrepresented, marginalized, oppressed and silenced people. By no means am I saying that there are no good books by white male cis-straight neurotypical Western writers. I occasionally read and review a cheesy bestseller by a really white dude with no shame or explanation. I’m just saying that good books come from and are about everyone, so let’s stop faking like that’s not the case and expand our literary minds and cultural perspectives. That’s all.

Aside from my commitment to normal human diversity in my reading, a firm belief that literacy is for everyone, and a lack of an internalized genre hierarchy of books (romance, science, and philosophy all exist on the same planet, right?), I’m also a writer. A bibliography of my work is below.

Fiction

Palimpsest, Strange Horizons, November 2025

Ol’ Big Head, Lightspeed, December 2024

The Hundred Loves, Haven Speculative, January 2024

Eat, Fantasy Magazine, June 2023

Knotty Girl, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, May/June 2023

Mothership Connection, khōréō, Issue 2.4, January 2023

Adventures of Mago the Cat: Where Clouds Drift To Rest, West of the Sun Books, November 2022

Carrot Salad, Flash in A Flash, April 2021

Dragonflies, midnight & indigo, October 2020

Non-Fiction

Staff Reviewer at Lightspeed Magazine

How I Became My Own Fun Auntie, Carefree Magazine, August 2025

Farewell, Deauwand Myers, Korea Times, March 2025(this is an obituary I wrote for a dear departed friend, and I debated including it here. I think he’d want me to.)

A Desk of My Own, Gifted-ish: Women and Non-binary Writers on Intelligence, Identity and Education, January 2024

The Substation’s Beer Hall Brings Community For All, Crafted For All, November 2023

A Repat’s Guide To Boston, The Statesider, January 2023

I Need To Tell You About My Mother, Raising Mothers, December 2021 (featured in Memoir Monday)

From Denver To Seoul, Black In Asia: A Spill Stories Anthology, July 2020

The Bell of Bosingak, Discoveries of Korea II(KOREA Magazine), January 2016

Beauty, Okay?, Trailblasian: Black Women Living In East Asia, May 2014

Poetry

시(I Want To Write A Poem)/ Seoul Snapshot Saturday Morning, Seoul Migrant Arts Festival Earthlings Gallery, September 2020

Plays

Denver Was Different, radio play in Untitled @ the Denver Art Museum

Podcasts, Panels, Speeches

Short Fiction With Teeth, (panelist) 82nd World Science Fiction Convention Glasgow

Friendships, our #ownnormal, and the tolerance for unresolvable conflicts exist, homeroom the podcast

Artist Portrait No. 25, Melissa Watkins(Writer), Artists on the Verge

fAIcing facts: Authors and AI, VICFAAAA! 2023 AI, Algorithms, Automata, and Art

Blerd Up! (cast member, 30+ episodes 2019-2020)

You Can Have A Good Life In Korea, But…, The Black Experience Japan

Parallels, Sound of Water Season 1, Episode 5

Classes

Exploring Black Women’s Hope Narratives in Fantasy & Sci-Fi | 4-Week Workshop, midnight and indigo

Mentions

5 Read With Jenna Bookclub Picks That Aren’t Worth Your Time, According to Reviewers – Women.com

Knotty Girl In The News – Under The Volcano

What Great Book By A Black Author Should Be Brought To The Screen Next? – NPR

Finally, I’m available to speak and write on issues of diversity in literature, particularly moving towards normalization of genuine diversity and difference in the arts. Contact me at equalopportunityreaders AT gmail DOT com