Melissa Hekkers was born in Belgium, and since 2004 she has been living and working in Cyprus. Melissa is a freelance journalist, columnist and features writer for local newspapers and other magazines and online platforms. Her written work focuses mainly on the arts and culture as well as human interest stories and also indulges in travel writing when travelling.
Recently, Melissa has been heavily involved in the refugee crisis, both as a writer aiming to bring awareness to the matter, but also as an independent volunteer.
In 2007 she published her first children’s book in both English and Greek entitled CROCODILE, which won the Cyprus State Illustration Award of the same year. In 2012, she launched her second children’s book FLYING ACROSS READ SKIES (English and Greek), an experimental approach to literature, for which she was nominated for the Cyprus State Literary award. A year later she diverted from writing for children and published her first poetry book COME-FORTH. In 2014, her third children’s book PUPA (Greek and English) was very well received.
Her work can be viewed at melissahekkers.com.
