Manuel A. Melendez is a hybrid writer born and partially raised in Camagüey, Cuba. He has been published in Carolina Muse Literary & Arts Magazine, WayWords Literary Journal, Apricity Magazine, Dream Noir Magazine, and Superstition Review. He has received several awards for his writing (across multiple genres), including The 3rd and 4th Annual Derick Burleson Poetry Contest Awards, the E. L. Bartlett Contest for Literary Criticism Award, and The Farthest North Fiction Contest Short Story or Single Chapter Award. He will forever be proud of his freshman thesis: the first screenplay adaptation of Call Me by Your Name. He dreams of one day living in a world where poetry can take permanent physical shape, but he settles for a fierce latte, vibrant verses, and being penniless but ravishing on his deathbed.