Melissa Petrakis began writing poetry in the 1990s. She has performed her work in pubs, cafes, clubs, and arts venues around Melbourne since 2000. Her poetry has been published in After Noon (USA), Centoria, Dan Poets, Deadline, dotlit (USA), farrago, Flaming Nibs : An Accidental Anthology, Going Down Swinging, Hobo, kotapress (USA), Meanjin, Moving Out Moving On : Poems of Dislocation, The Muse Apprentice Guild (USA), overland, Postgraduate Review (University of Melbourne), Red Lobster, Said The Rat, Scope, SideWaLK, The Other Side, The Second Worst Thing : Poems on Surviving the Death of a Child and Tiny Epics : Short Stories and Poems by Young Australian Writers. In 1997 Melissa was awarded The Margaret Connah Award for Poetry by FAW Queensland. In the northern summer of 2000 she performed her work in London, and two years later in the United States.
