Melissa Olson grew up in a big-ish family in a small-ish town in Northwestern Wisconsin. After spending most of elementary and middle school with her nose in books, she got her driver’s license and graduated to having her nose (and accompanying face) at movie theaters.

Melissa attended the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where she earned degrees in English and film and wrote movie reviews and features for the Daily Trojan newspaper. After graduation, she spent a brief time in the Hollywood studio system (which included two layoffs, a total of six months of unemployment, and countless turkey and pepperjack wraps at the Warner Bros Studio cafeteria) before moving to Madison, WI, where she spent two years working as a television producer. Her not-so-secret alter ego is as an occasional film columnist for the Chippewa Falls Herald Telegram. Her articles have also appeared in the Collegiate Magazine and online at Suite101.

Currently, Melissa is pursuing her MA in creative writing from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee. In her free time, Melissa enjoys reading, movies, and time with her husband, their daughter Matilda, and their two comically oversized dogs. She likes Madison very much, but often dreams of the food in LA. Literally. There are dreams.