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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Open Spaces show rundown for June 12, 2026. -
In an annual report on child wellbeing by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Wyoming is twelfth in the country, up from 23rd last year. -
Several Intermountain West states rank near the top of an annual report on child wellbeing due to a lower cost of living and more investment in education. -
Open Spaces show rundown for June 5, 2026. -
After Wyoming began cooperating with ICE, a woman who grew up in small town Wyoming chose to move to Mexico – a place she left when she was 7. -
The ACLU of Wyoming is accusing the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office of not adhering to Wyoming law requiring approval by county commissioners and a public comment period. -
Open Spaces show rundown for May 22, 2026. -
“Mountain Migrations” is filled with episodes about a defining trait of Westerners: They’re always on the move. -
The Laramie County Sheriff’s Office launched a campaign called “Truck Around, Find Out.” -
That’s even as state lawmakers seek to tighten proof of citizenship for public assistance programs. -
On June 25th, 1876, Northern Arapaho, Cheyenne and Lakota warriors defeated the U.S. 7th Cavalry in southeast Montana. The exhibit brings together artwork from survivors of the battle as well as contemporary depictions of the event. -
Open Spaces show rundown for April 24, 2026
