Melissa Hart grew up in Southern California and earned her B.A. in Literature from the College of Creative Studies at U.C. Santa Barbara. She earned her M.F.A. in Creative Writing at Goddard College in Vermont.She teaches Feature Writing at the School of Journalism and Communication, University of Oregon. Her essays and articles have appeared in The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Los Angeles Times, The Advocate, Hemispheres, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Mothering, Brain Child, Orion, High Country News, and numerous other publications. She's a columnist at The Writer Magazine.Hart lives with her husband, their daughter, and three rescued cats.