Long Bio

Laura Ojeda Melchor grew up near Bozeman, Montana. She now lives and writes in Southcentral Alaska with her young son.

Like the main characters in her stories, Laura is Cuban-American. She’s fluent in Spanish and is trying to teach it to her son, too. She’s never visited Cuba, but she flew over it once as a kid and plans to visit with her family one day.

As a child, Laura loved climbing into a spruce tree in her front yard with a good book and some chocolate.

She’d spend hours in the tree reading, staring at the mountains and the creek that ran behind her house, and dreaming of one day becoming an author.

In 2017, Laura graduated from Vermont College of Fine Arts with her MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults. She writes middle grade and young adult fiction and is represented by Danielle Chiotti of Upstart Crow Literary. Her debut novel, Missing Okalee, came out from Shadow Mountain Publishing on September 7, 2021.

Laura also works as a freelance writer and copywriter. You can see a list of the articles she’s written over on the freelance content writing page.

If you’re having trouble saying her name, you’re not alone. Here’s a tip: it’s pronounced “Oh-hey-duh Mel-chore (as in vacuuming).”

Short Bio

Laura Ojeda Melchor is a Cuban-American writer who grew up in Montana, where a spruce tree in her front yard was her most frequented reading nook. She now lives in her beloved, adopted home state of Alaska with her young son. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her debut middle grade novel, Missing Okalee, came out from Shadow Mountain Publishing on September 7, 2021. Find her online at lauraojedamelchor.com.

Fun Facts:

• I love international travel and have visited 17 countries, including Peru, Jamaica, France, Norway, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, and more.

• During summers off from college, I worked as a housekeeper at a hotel, a job I did not like but that helped fund some of that travel.

• As a kid, I used to write books and sell them to my parents for a quarter each.

• I have one sibling, a sister who’s just 17 months younger, and we’re very close.

• I love to garden and am obsessed with delphiniums in particular.

• I hate learning new games, but once I know how to play, I love them. My favorites include Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, and Uno.

• I started gymnastics at age 4 and quit at age 14, but not before winning first place in my first meet (and losing all the meets that followed).

• Even though I live in a gorgeous, outdoorsy place, I’m not an avid hiker/biker/skiier (although I would like to do more of those activities than I currently do). Instead, my favorite thing to do outdoors is find a beautiful location – riverbanks or creek-sides in Montana and sweeping mountain tundras in Alaska – sit with a good book and a snack, and read for as long as I can.

• I love to go camping, as long as I can take a shower every day. If I can’t take a shower, I’ll do a daily dunk in a lake, creek, or river instead. Or pour water over my head if I’m absolutely desperate.

• I have seen orcas in the wild at Kenai Fjords National Park in Alaska, a memory I count as one of the best in my life.