Interviewing Melissa Yuan-Innes

Melissa Yi is the pen name for Dr. Melissa Yuan-Innes, an emergency physician with an active practice and an award-winning writing career. She has 25+ fiction titles crossing genres of science fiction, mystery, and medical thrillers. You can learn more about all of her books on her website.

Her Hope Sze medical thriller series is the most popular and has been well received, with praise from major Canadian newspapers. The Globe and Mail hailed Human Remains,  the fifth Hope Sze thriller, as one of the best Canadian suspense novels to read at the cottage, “a scarier-than-ever murder mystery." Human Remains was also the #1 mystery recommendation of CBC Books’ Holiday Gift Guide. Terminally Ill, the third Hope Sze mystery, will take to Ottawa’s stage in June 2021. Originally designed as immersive theatre, it will be recreated as an online experience given pandemic restrictions.

Melissa was shortlisted for the Crime Writers of Canada/Arthur Ellis Award for the best crime story in Canada and a finalist for the Derringer Award, which is for the best short mystery fiction in the world. Her stories appear in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine.

The Medical Post has served as a collection of Yi's popular articles recounting her own experiences as an intern and an emergency room doctor.  The Most Unfeeling Doctor in the  World and Other True Tales From the Energency Room.  She took those experiences and also turned them into a one-woman show, “I Am the Most Unfeeling Doctor in the World,” which won Best of Fest in Ottawa and was a finalist for the Behind the Rideau Award.

Melissa appeared on CBC Radio’s The Current to discuss the Staunch Prize, a feminist thriller award for which she was longlisted in 2020.

A fierce physician advocate, Dr. Yuan-Innes spearheaded a COVID petition that gathered more than 200,000 signatures. She has since appeared on The National, Global News, CTV News, and in Maclean’s, The Globe and Mail, Elle Magazine, and many other sources.

Doctor-wise, Melissa has worked as far north as Ivujivik, Quebec (Inuktitut: ᐃᕗᔨᕕᒃ, north of 60; also the northernmost village in a Canadian province). Nowadays she runs codes in Eastern Ontario. 

Melissa is one powerful woman with more energy than anyone I've ever met. So buckle up for this fast moving interview. What does  she do when she's not doctoring, writing, or advocating for health issues? She’s married to her high school sweetheart, with two loud and loveable children and a Rottweiler shepherd. She loves yoga, blading, intelligence, and random craziness. I can personally vouch for the "random craziness" part (big smile).

She hangs out on Facebook, and Twitter (@dr_sassy).