Get to know Mel

Mel Allen taught fourth grade in Maine for three years and believes that his education as a writer began when he had to hold the attention of 27 children through months of Maine winters. From his first two stories in Yankee’s December 1977 issue to a January day in 2025 when he closed his office door for the last time, he spent nearly half a century finding people and places whose stories he wanted to know and assigning countless others to the finest writers in New England.

He became Yankee’s fifth editor in the summer of 2006, after previous roles as senior editor and executive editor. In 2018, he was inducted into the Folio Magazine Hall of Fame for editorial excellence. Mel has taught magazine writing and creative nonfiction for the past 25 years, divided between the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and MFA Bay Path. His previous book is A Coach’s Letter to His Son. He lives and writes in New Hampshire.