Melanie Rae Thon (born 1957) is an American writer, "widely regarded as one of the most original stylists writing fiction today." Thon has received grants from the National Foundation for the Arts, the Ohio Arts Council, and the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation. She has taught at Emerson College, Syracuse University, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Ohio State University, and the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Born in Montana, Thon currently resides in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Thon is the author of three novels, Meteors in August, published in 1990; Iona Moon, published in 1993, and Sweet Hearts, published in 2001, and two short story collections, Girls in the Grass, published in 1991 and First, Body, published in 1997.
Thon's short story "Letters in the Snow," is included in the The O. Henry Prize Stories 2006. The story was first published in the June 20, 2004 issue of One Story, a literary journal. "Letters in the Snow" is subtitled "for kind strangers and unborn children -- for the ones lost and most beloved." Her fiction has also been included in the anthology series Best American Short Stories (1995, 1996).
In 1996, Granta magazine included Thon on its list of the twenty Best Young American Novelists.