Melissa Bałut Fondakowski is a fundraising professional. Bałut Fondakowski’s debut chapbook of poetry, Impatiens, was chosen as the winner of the Sow’s Ear Review poetry chapbook competition. Her reviews, articles, poetry and fiction have appeared, or are forthcoming, in San Francisco Magazine, Lavender Review, Women’s Studies Quarterly, the San Francisco Chronicle, Cider Press Review, and others. Bałut Fondakowski received a degree in Psychiatry and Religion from Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York, and writes regularly about philanthropy, fiction, and creativity at Unfit to Print.