Melodie Edwards
ReporterLeave a tip: medward9@uwyo.edu
Melodie Edwards is the host and producer of WPM's award-winning podcast The Modern West. Her Ghost Town(ing) series looks at rural despair and resilience through the lens of her hometown of Walden, Colorado. She has been a radio reporter at WPM since 2013, covering topics from wildlife to Native American issues to agriculture.
Her civil discourse project called "I Respectfully Disagree" brought together people in the state, modeling how people find compromise to make change. One of these conversations, "Time Heals All Wounds," won a national PMJA award. She is also the recipient of a national PRNDI award for her investigation of the reservation housing crisis and several regional Edward R. Murrow Awards, two for "best use of sound."
Melodie grew up in Walden, Colorado, where her father worked in the oilfield and timber industries and her mother was the editor of the Jackson County Star. Later, her parents ran an Orvis fly fishing store there. She graduated with an MFA from the University of Michigan on a Colby Fellowship and received two Hopwood Awards for fiction and nonfiction. She was the first person to receive the Pattie Layser Greater Yellowstone Writing Fellowship through the Wyoming Arts Council and was the recipient of the Doubleday Wyoming Arts Council Award for Women. She's the author of two books, Akoreka and the League of Crows, a young adult novel, and Hikes Around Fort Collins. Melodie and her husband own Night Heron Books and Coffeehouse. She also loves to putz in the garden and backpack and ski in the mountains with her twin daughters, her husband and her dog.
Phone: 307-766-2405
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Jennie Gordon says food insecurity in the state is worse than during the pandemic and that her food security program is more necessary than ever. -
Ahead of the 2026 general election, Wyoming Public Radio and KHOL Jackson offered all candidates in competitive races for statewide and federal offices 20-minute interviews to introduce themselves to voters and discuss their positions. Bryan McCarty is the Democratic Party’s nominee running for Wyoming secretary of state. He spoke with WPR’s Melodie Edwards. -
Ahead of the 2026 general election, Wyoming Public Radio and KHOL Jackson offered all candidates in competitive races for statewide and federal offices 20-minute interviews to introduce themselves to voters and discuss their positions. Tamara Trujillo is the Constitution Party’s nominee running for Wyoming secretary of state. She spoke with WPR’s Melodie Edwards. -
Ahead of the 2026 general election, Wyoming Public Radio and KHOL Jackson offered all candidates in competitive races for statewide and federal offices 20-minute interviews to introduce themselves to voters and discuss their positions. Robert Short is the Republican Party’s nominee running for Wyoming secretary of state. He spoke with WPR’s Melodie Edwards. -
All three said they want to ensure no fraud is happening amid Wyoming’s booming rate of new business filings. When it came to voting, they shared different visions for what constitutes fair access and ballot security. -
Federal cuts to The Emergency Food Assistance Program and SNAP have caused food insecurity in the state to rise yet again. -
Protesters have been gathering outside the Foundations for Nations church on the Wind River Reservation for weeks, ever since the church’s pastor made derogatory remarks about the Northern Arapaho tribe’s Sundance ceremony. She’s since apologized, but adds that she’s not leaving. The incident raises wider questions about tribal sovereignty and authority. -
Open Spaces show rundown for September 18, 2026 -
A Laramie transgender activist is facing charges for pulling a gun on a man after he pushed her down and allegedly shouted slurs at her. -
Open Spaces show rundown for September 11, 2026. -
Cam Sholly is taking a new job with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. -
The protests have been staged outside the Foundations for Nations church every Sunday since Pastor Sarah Lucas made controversial statements during a sermon on July 5.
