Melissa Jackson, M.F.A.

Assistant Professor
Department of General Education University College

678-839-2300
mjackson@westga.edQ4V6S1Y8rU6qPTOU78zZcIIAiUEGSLXf9vo7wPku

Newnan Center Building 1000 - Room 103
Office Hours
OFFICE HOURS
M/W: 3-5
T/H: 2-5
F: 2-5 (by appointment)

Download curriculum vitae for Melissa Jackson, M.F.A. in PDF
Melissa Jackson, M.F.A.

Melissa Dickson Jackson is a teacher, artist, poet, and feature writer committed to student success and community engagement. She teaches writing and American literature, and she is currently pursuing an EdD in Innovation and Leadership at Augusta University.

Melissa is the creative founder of UWG's Mars Expo, a program that invites students to practice public scholarship while role-playing as off-planet colonists. The program has received funding from the Georgia Space Grant Consortium and Yamaha. Across her work, she focuses on building the relationships that help students thrive.

Melissa is the author of two poetry collections, Cameo (2011) and Sweet Aegis: Medusa Poems (2013). Her poems have appeared in The Bitter Southerner, Shenandoah, North American Review, Southern Humanities Review, Cumberland River Review, Southern Women's Review, Literary Mama, and Gravy, published by the Southern Foodways Alliance at the University of Mississippi. Her work is also included in Vinegar and Char (University of Georgia Press, 2018), Ice on a Hot Stove (Clemson University Press, 2021), and The Cumberland River Review Anthology (2018). She served as associate editor of Stone, River, Sky: An Anthology of Georgia Poems (Negative Capability Press, 2015) with the late Dr. Carey Scott Wilkerson from Columbus State University.

As a feature writer, she contributes regularly to Newnan-Coweta Magazine and has written for Thrive, the Coweta Chamber of Commerce magazine. In 2025, she received a first-place Georgia Press Association award for business writing.

Melissa serves on the board of Newnan ArtRez, takes part each year in the Newnan History Center's Oak Hill Cemetery Tour, and is a frequent guest speaker for community and civic organizations. Her favorite topic is extraordinary women including Mayhayley Lancaster (infamous Heard County fortune teller), Maria Sibylla Merian (the late 17th century mother of entomology), and Beatrix Potter (artist, writer, scientist, and business pioneer). Melissa is also fascinated by the impact Tuberculosis has had on culture around the world. 

Before teaching, Melissa built a career in the arts, media, and business. During her years in New York City after graduating from the School of Visual Arts, she exhibited her work in NYC galleries, earning coverage in The New York Times, New York Magazine, and The New Yorker. She also managed client installations nationwide for a New York City design firm, served as Adult Division Registrar at the Lucy Moses School, where she enrolled students in singing, conducting, and performance classes (including, on one memorable occasion, Bette Midler), and worked as executive assistant to the president of Nonesuch Records, a Warner Music Group company, helping coordinate travel for the Buena Vista Social Club's Grammy-winning Carnegie Hall concert. Later, at the Opelika-Auburn News, she coordinated the Newspapers in Education program, hosted events such as the Annual Bridal Fair and an indoor community yard sale with more than 200 booths, and founded The Cub Reporter, which gave K–12 students hands-on experience producing news.

Melissa brings her innovative spirit and lived experience to the UWG classroom, helping her students recognize language and communication as central to their professional and personal futures.

  • B.F.A., Fine Arts, Painting, Auburn University, 1992
  • M.F.A., Studio Arts, School of Visual Arts, 1995
  • M.F.A., Creative and Professional Writing, Converse College, 2012

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The Immortal Memory Address January 30, 2016 [View Publication External Resource]

Ghost Tales p 27 [View Publication External Resource]

Mayhayley the Mercurial [View Publication External Resource]

Stone, River, Sky: An Anthology of Georgia Poetry [View Publication External Resource]

Bitter Southerner (poem) [View Publication External Resource]

Shenandoah (Two Poems) [View Publication External Resource]

Collection of Poems from New Plains Press [View Publication External Resource]

Collection of Poems from Negative Capability Press [View Publication External Resource]

Cumberland River Review [View Publication External Resource]

Gravy, The Journal of the Southern Foodways Alliance [View Publication External Resource]

Newnan/Coweta Magazine Page 32 [View Publication External Resource]

North American Review Blog [View Publication External Resource]

Public Speaking

I'm a skilled public speaker with experience on a variety of topics. I've addressed local civic groups and organizations on topics including The History of the Pulitzer Prize, Mayhayley Lancaster (notorious regional fortune teller), Robert Burns, and the creative overlap of the visual and literary arts. I'm also a trained and skilled performer of literature and poetry. I've appeared on the Weather Channel, in the documentary Legend of an Oracle, and at various venues in the Southeast including Auburn University's June Collins Smith Museum, Avid Bookshop in Athens, The New South Bookstore in Montgomery, and local events including the annual Oakhill Cemetery Tour, Kiwanis and Rotary Meetings, LitMu Meetings, and the Newnan Carnegie Library.