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.
Seeking published books, graphic novels, and short stories for film and TV adaptation. Winner and runner-up receive extensive development with execs and circulation to producers.
Reviewing unpublished manuscripts across multiple categories of fiction and nonfiction. Select publishers and literary agents get first look at the winners and runners-up.
The Indispensable Lottie Hot by Mark Connelly will be published by Running Wild Press. Due for a 2026 release. Mark placed in the 2024 Unpublished competition with his literary novel Newman's Choice.
Unpublished finalist (Nonfiction) Kate Evans was introduced by Pipeline to agent Cindy Bullard of Birch Literary in 2023, who soon after signed her. Ditch Your Sh*t!: How to Declutter the Crap Out of Your Life and Home is slated for publication in October 2025 through Turner Books.
This one is best-expressed through a timeline ... A totally easy process spanning a breezy … nine years. From Laura: "The Pipeline team has been amazingly helpful since The Mother was a finalist in the Script Pipeline TV competition years ago. It's a story that has stayed close to my heart so I ended up […]
