Melissa MacTaggart fell in love with stories when she was a young girl, the possibility that words could articulate feelings, circumstance, truth and meaning felt like an opening to a magic portal and she has tried to enter that portal ever since.

Melissa has written professionally as a playwright, poet, author, columnist for Tribune Media, magazine contributor, songwriter and ghost writer.  Her love of language and self-expression also drew her to the performing arts, she trained in theatre and acted and sang professionally for many years. She has taught drama, led youth acting workshops, directed plays for children in London, Los Angeles and Chicago and was the Artistic Director for the theater company that she founded in Los Angeles.

She firmly believes that creative impulses live within all of us just waiting to be expressed, it is one the joys of being human. 

‘The Wren and the Dream Maker’ is her first novel, she currently teaches creative writing classes. Originally from England she lives in Chicago with her daughter, her dog and two all-knowing cats.