Melinda Smith

Melinda Smith (1971 – ) is an Australian poet.
She won the poetry section of the Prime Minister's Literary Awards in 2014 for her collection Drag Down to Unlock or Place an Emergency Call. The award citation said, "From its range of technique and tone to its depth of ideas, imagery and emotion, this collection announces the arrival of a major new poet."
She lives in Canberra with her partner and their two sons. One of their sons has been diagnosed with autism, which has been the subject of many of her poems, including the entire collection First – Then – : Poems from Planet Autism.

• Pushing Thirty, Wearing Seventeen (Ginninderra Press, 2001)
• Mapless in Underland (Ginninderra Press, 2004)
• First – Then – : Poems from Planet Autism (Ginninderra Press, 2012)
• Drag Down to Unlock or Place an Emergency Call (Pitt Street Poetry, 2013)