Melanie Bonner Thomas is a western Kansas native and the youngest child of field paleontologist Marion Charles Bonner. She received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English from the University of Kansas. After a brief period as a college English instructor in Kansas and Texas, she has spent the bulk of her career as a writer, editor, and communications specialist. Her master’s thesis was an annotated edition of an 1869 work of plains literature called Buffalo Land. While a graduate student, she served as teaching assistant and editor of Cottonwood Review, a literary magazine, and edited the anthology Kansas Women Writers and co-edited Nineteen Stories: Contemporary Fiction by Kansas Writers.
Her interest in Great Plains literature, history, and science can be traced directly to the influence of her father. Her 2025 book, Old Man of the Fossil Beds, tells the story of her close relationship with her autodidact father.
Melanie lived in Texas from 1986 to 2024. While working in Austin as copy chief and associate editor for Texas Monthly magazine and as managing editor of Hispanic magazine, she contributed history, archaeology, and paleontology features. She currently lives in New Orleans.
Melanie's author website is also her publishing company's page: www.chalklilybooks.com. She has a spinoff paleo book in the works -- hoping to publish it in March or April. She's planning to take part in the Kansas Book Festival in late September, and also hopes to come to the Kansas Authors Club Convention in early October. She is looking forward to visiting with other Kansas authors!
Her interest in Great Plains literature, history, and science can be traced directly to the influence of her father. Her 2025 book, Old Man of the Fossil Beds, tells the story of her close relationship with her autodidact father.
Melanie lived in Texas from 1986 to 2024. While working in Austin as copy chief and associate editor for Texas Monthly magazine and as managing editor of Hispanic magazine, she contributed history, archaeology, and paleontology features. She currently lives in New Orleans.
Melanie's author website is also her publishing company's page: www.chalklilybooks.com. She has a spinoff paleo book in the works -- hoping to publish it in March or April. She's planning to take part in the Kansas Book Festival in late September, and also hopes to come to the Kansas Authors Club Convention in early October. She is looking forward to visiting with other Kansas authors!
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