Melissa Duge Spiers is a screenwriter and memoirist, whose true-life saga, The Glory Whole, exposes hypocrisy, sexual scandal, misogyny and family secrets of Shakespearean proportions in the seamy underbelly of the biggest religion you’ve never heard of – the Seventh-Day Adventist church – and demonstrates the remarkable healing power of an intense and wildly unusual female bond.

Melissa’s debut feature screenplay, Brave Woman, placed in and/or won awards from Cinequest, Sundance, Cynosure, Athena Film Festival LA Lab, Final Draft Big Break, and Austin Film Festival. Her magazine and personal essay work have appeared in or been cited by Forbes.com, The Wall Street Journal online, MSN magazine, SF Gate, Bitch magazine, Vitamin W and many more.

Melissa is planning a follow-up memoir to The Glory Whole, exploring another unexpected and highly unconventional female bond – and some good old-fashioned detective work – that proves to be a lifeline out of a very dangerous and suffocating liaison.

A graduate of Andrews Academy, Melissa holds a B.A. in English Literature from Barnard College at Columbia University. She lives and works on the Central Coast of California.