Melissa Llanes Brownlee
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lumchanmfa.bsky.social
Melissa Llanes Brownlee
@lumchanmfa.bsky.social
2.1K followers 1.7K following 2.2K posts
Native Hawaiian writer living in Japan

https://www.melissallanesbrownlee.com/

Bitter over Sweet https://tinyurl.com/5hd7u63r

Hard Skin http://tinyurl.com/yc53
Kahi&Lua http://tinyurl.com/3ryfzvwh
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lumchanmfa.bsky.social
Melissa Llanes Brownlee @lumchanmfa.bsky.social · Nov 8
I’m still buzzing from my awesome book launch!! Thank you Deesha Philyaw for being a part of it and for your wonderful questions and @avitusbcarle.bsky.social for being an amazing host. Thank you to everyone who came and thank you to my friends who helped and supported me ❤️❤️❤️
sfwp.bsky.social SFWP @sfwp.bsky.social · Nov 7
TONIGHT at 7pm EST, @lumchanmfa.bsky.social will be in conversation with @deeshaphilyaw.bsky.social to celebrate the launch of BITTER OVER SWEET, hosted by @avitusbcarle.bsky.social! buff.ly/CtKtA0k

Can't make it? Get BITTER OVER SWEET right here! buff.ly/3pPOviA
@susanschulman.bsky.social
Reposted by Melissa Llanes Brownlee
jenwithwords.bsky.social
✨Today’s Bookmail! 📚📬✨

@lumchanmfa.bsky.social is a writer I greatly admire and this collection of flash fiction digs deep into the people and stories beyond the Hawaiian beaches and tourists. Very thrilled to add it to my shelves!
The book “Bitter Over Sweet” by Melissa Llanes Brownlee sits on a wooden tabletop surrounded by shells, coral, and other pale sea paraphernalia.
December 10, 2025 at 2:34 AM
lumchanmfa.bsky.social
What wonderful news to wake up to! Thank you @clmporg.bsky.social and congratulations to my fellow @sfwp.bsky.social authors ❤️❤️❤️
December 9, 2025 at 9:47 PM
Reposted by Melissa Llanes Brownlee
sfwp.bsky.social
Thank you @clmporg.bsky.social for including our authors - @samuelashworth.bsky.social, @stepheneoannou.bsky.social, @lindalenhoff.bsky.social, @carolinehagood.bsky.social, Lisa K. Friedman, & @lumchanmfa.bsky.social - in the Fiction of 2025 reading list! buff.ly/5jKa9IR

Shop here: buff.ly/sk1w8ZA
Fiction of 2025 - Community of Literary Magazines and Presses
We’re excited to share this year-end roundup of novels, novellas, short story collections, and fiction anthologies published in 2025 by independent literary publishers! Read our year-end roundups of…
buff.ly
December 9, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Reposted by Melissa Llanes Brownlee
pdforan.bsky.social
“… and I let him steal me from his friend, the nice one, because I wasn’t nice and neither was he. The sex was at-the-beach-and-in-the-McDonald’s-bathroom-and-behind-the-bleachers fun.”

@lumchanmfa.bsky.social in @gooseberrypielit.bsky.social
gooseberry-pie.com/the-guy-i-du...
The Guy I Dumped In The Iowa Cornfields On The Way To His Grandparents’ House - Gooseberry Pie Lit Magazine
Photo by Amr Taha™ on Unsplash by Melissa Llanes Brownlee  The guy I dumped in the Iowa cornfields became my boyfriend in my senior year of high school and I let him steal me from his friend, the nice...
gooseberry-pie.com
December 8, 2025 at 5:15 AM
lumchanmfa.bsky.social
weekly ukulele video 🥰❤️

youtu.be/NwLSoRpjcq0
weekly ukulele video 🥰❤️ (December 8, 2025)
YouTube video by Melissa Llanes Brownlee
youtu.be
December 7, 2025 at 9:41 PM
Reposted by Melissa Llanes Brownlee
lmbayley.bsky.social
"Tweezer" is one last story I have to share by @lumchanmfa.bsky.social , because this one made me want to scream. It triggered my own memories of similar situations, and how hard it is to meet a mother's expectations. #flashfiction #microfiction

sugarsugarsalt.wordpress.com/2023/02/03/t...
Two Micros by Melissa Llanes Brownlee
Tweezer Your hair is going gray but you don’t want to dye it yet. That would admit defeat. I part its darkness in uneven rows, with a comb, starting in the front and working my way to the back, hun…
sugarsugarsalt.wordpress.com
December 7, 2025 at 11:40 AM
Reposted by Melissa Llanes Brownlee
lmbayley.bsky.social
I don't think I can even tell you how angry this story made me. By @lumchanmfa.bsky.social in Parentheses Journal, and in her book "Bitter Over Sweet." #flashfiction

www.parenthesesjournal.com/issue-14/los...
Lose 10 Pounds in 3 Days – Melissa Llanes Brownlee
Breakfast: black tea or coffee, 1/2 a grapefruit, 1 piece of toast with 1 tablespoon of peanut butter, you are only twelve but your mother insists, and you have to follow the rules exactly or you won’t lose any weight, your pants and skirts no longer fitting your once straight but now widening hips, but at least there is peanut butter, you think, as you wish for some guava jam to go with it, your mother sitting next to you sipping her black coffee, grapefruit pith clinging to her painted fingernails
www.parenthesesjournal.com
December 7, 2025 at 11:35 AM
Reposted by Melissa Llanes Brownlee
lmbayley.bsky.social
All the ways your parents use fear to control you! Read "A Ghost Under the Kitchen Sink" by @lumchanmfa.bsky.social in (mac)ro(mic) here: macromic.wordpress.com/2021/11/05/a...
And then go buy her book "Bitter Over Sweet", which is where I read this story first.
#flashfiction #microfiction
A Ghost under the Kitchen Sink by Melissa Llanes Brownlee
Sami’s mom has Sami’s bed facing away from the door because that’s how the devil enters your body when you are asleep and the devil would like nothing better than to possess a girl like you from yo…
macromic.wordpress.com
December 7, 2025 at 11:32 AM
Reposted by Melissa Llanes Brownlee
lmbayley.bsky.social
I've just finished reading "Bitter Over Sweet" by @lumchanmfa.bsky.social, published by @sfwp.bsky.social . And it's amazing. I want everybody to read it. But flash writers especially can learn from the stories in this book; there might actually be magic at work here.

www.sfwp.com/books/brownlee
Bitter Over Sweet - Melissa Llanes Brownlee — Santa Fe Writers Project
Product Details: Paperback : 142 Pages ISBN : 9781951631512 Cover design: Gwen Grafft About the Book: Hawaiian native Tita works to escape a vicious cycle of poverty and abuse, only to rea...
www.sfwp.com
December 7, 2025 at 11:46 AM
Reposted by Melissa Llanes Brownlee
gilloshaughnessy.bsky.social
Fantastic interview! @tcboudreau.bsky.social talks to @patriciaqbidar.bsky.social about her new collection Pardon me for Moonwalking for @fracturedlit.bsky.social

fracturedlit.com/the-idea-tha...
The idea that a work is finished is peculiar to me. Stories are alive. an interview with Patricia Q. Bidar | Fractured
fracturedlit.com
December 5, 2025 at 11:18 PM
lumchanmfa.bsky.social
Thank you @claudineliterary.bsky.social for the @bestmicrofiction.bsky.social nomination!! Congratulations and good luck to my fellow nominees ❤️❤️❤️
December 5, 2025 at 8:35 PM
Reposted by Melissa Llanes Brownlee
claudineliterary.bsky.social
Honored to celebrate our BMF nominees!
🐈‍⬛🎉 @lumchanmfa.bsky.social @aniking.bsky.social @jekwriter.bsky.social @jhhwriter.bsky.social @ezhang77.bsky.social
December 5, 2025 at 5:40 PM
lumchanmfa.bsky.social
weekly talk story about @prairie-schooner.bsky.social pub, acceptance from @soflopojo.bsky.social and Bitter Over Sweet reviews (pretty please)...

www.melissallanesbrownlee.com/talk-story/2...
Prairie Schooner Pub, Acceptance from SoFloPoJo and Bitter Over Sweet Reviews — Melissa Llanes Brownlee
I know that I have already celebrated all over social media but yay for my micro, “No Be Like Those Kine Men,” being in Prairie Schooner! I know many of you know that I have been aiming high with my w...
www.melissallanesbrownlee.com
December 4, 2025 at 11:23 PM
Reposted by Melissa Llanes Brownlee
mizuki-yama.bsky.social
Three little 🤏🏻 micros from yours truly are up in the December issue of @doesithavepockets.bsky.social! Thank you to Camille and the editorial team! ✨

www.doesithavepockets.com/fiction/mizu...
Mizuki Yamamoto — Does It Have Pockets
Receipt | Bath House | Molting Season
www.doesithavepockets.com
December 2, 2025 at 3:25 AM
Reposted by Melissa Llanes Brownlee
patriciaqbidar.bsky.social
Out TODAY, or so I'm told.
December 2, 2025 at 5:39 PM
Reposted by Melissa Llanes Brownlee
flashfrog.bsky.social
We are SO excited to announce the details for our 5th annual Blue Frog flash fiction prize! And thrilled and honored to welcome @camilleuadams.bsky.social 💙🐸

flash-frog.com/contest/
A blue flier announcing contest details: The 5th annual Blue Frog flash fiction prize. Theme: “Family”. Guest Judge: Camille U. Adams. Jan 1st - 31st. $5 per story. $700 in prizes. On the left is a picture of Camille U Adams surrounded by trees with yellow leaves. Below the photo is the Flash Frog logo (a frog with glasses trying on a typewriter)
December 2, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Reposted by Melissa Llanes Brownlee
prairie-schooner.bsky.social
Melissa Kwasny's essay "The American Prairie" appears in "Spaces: A Nonfiction Portfolio" in our recent issue.

Learn more, read excerpts from the issue, and order a copy here: prairieschooner.unl.edu/issue/spring...
The American Prairie by Melissa Kwasny "I know it is odd to say this, but the rock does become alive in front of my eyes, sparkling with purple, scarlet, umber, with garnet, quartz, granite, and veins of mica. A rock the equivalent of a rainbow. It seems to have gathered all the flower, fur, and leaf colors of the earth in its tumbling migration atop the ice sheets." http://prairieschooner.unl.edu
December 2, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Reposted by Melissa Llanes Brownlee
prairie-schooner.bsky.social
Our two newest issues are now available! Featuring Spaces: A Nonfiction Portfolio and archival work on the theme Writers on Writing, these issues mark a warm welcome to our new editor in chief, Timothy Schaffert.

Read more and find links to order here: prairieschooner.unl.edu/digital-scho...
Issues 99.1 and 99.2 now available - Prairie Schooner
The Spring and Summer 2025 issues of Prairie Schooner have arrived! These issues mark a warm welcome to our new editor in chief, Timothy Schaffert. Spring
prairieschooner.unl.edu
November 26, 2025 at 3:44 PM
lumchanmfa.bsky.social
So excited!! I’m celebrating now because I have no idea when I will get my print copies! Thank you @prairieschooner.bsky.social for giving my micro a home ❤️❤️❤️
December 3, 2025 at 12:08 AM
Reposted by Melissa Llanes Brownlee
gooseberrypielit.bsky.social
December 2024 Issue Work by @sfreligh.bsky.social Guy Biederman @amybarnes.bsky.social @ddgwriter.bsky.social @kimsrogers.bsky.social @rebeccatiger.bsky.social @claudiamonpere.bsky.social @csquareh.bsky.social
…more tags in comments…
gooseberry-pie.com/issue-24/
Issue 24 - Gooseberry Pie Lit Magazine
Photo by Shamblen Studios on Unsplash Gooseberry Pie launched in December 2023 with our first issue published January 18, 2024. What started as an idea to publish one six-sentence story per week quick...
gooseberry-pie.com
December 2, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Reposted by Melissa Llanes Brownlee
claudineliterary.bsky.social
Check out our review:

Sweet Nothings Are a Diary If You Know How to Read Them by Keith J. Powell is a tour de force of twenty-two stories about love, sex, and the gulf between the two.
​
@keithjpowell.com

www.claudineliterary.net/sweetnothing...
Sweet Nothings Are a Diary If You Know How To Read Them by Keith J. Powell | A Review
www.claudineliterary.net
December 1, 2025 at 10:44 PM
Reposted by Melissa Llanes Brownlee
sagetyrtle.bsky.social
Is speculative fiction memoir a thing? This is a scary story my much-missed mom told me (minus the speculative fiction bits) about her teen years. So happy to be in @doesithavepockets.bsky.social today!

www.doesithavepockets.com/fiction/sage...

#SpeculativeFiction #Memoir #ShortStory
Sage Tyrtle — Does It Have Pockets
The Lurching Horror of Kennewick Road
www.doesithavepockets.com
December 1, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Reposted by Melissa Llanes Brownlee
marioaliberto3.bsky.social
Finally, had a chance to sit down and start digging into this beauty and wow, just wow!!! Congratulations @lumchanmfa.bsky.social and @sfwp.bsky.social on a beautiful book!!!
December 1, 2025 at 11:25 AM
Reposted by Melissa Llanes Brownlee
claudineliterary.bsky.social
East Coast US midnight. First Monday of the month! 🐈‍⬛🎉🐈‍⬛

@jhhwriter.bsky.social @kimmagowan.bsky.social @susanllin.bsky.social @travisflatt.bsky.social @keithjpowell.com
December 1, 2025 at 5:14 AM
Reposted by Melissa Llanes Brownlee
smokelong.bsky.social
You can still join our free series of write-ins and open mics--five events each week until December 14th! Sign up for ZERO dollars. Yep. This one's on us.
www.smokelong.com/ready-for-pr...
Ready for Promptember 2025? - SmokeLong Quarterly
Join the SmokeLong community for Promptember, a mysterious intermonth happening between November and December of live write-in events designed to light a fire under your writing life. Participate in o...
www.smokelong.com
November 30, 2025 at 9:42 PM