Melissa F. Olson

Melissa F. Olson is an American comic book writer and author, primarily in the urban fantasy genre. She is known for her "Old World" books, which consist of the Scarlett Bernard series, the Boundary Magic series, a number of short stories, and two novellas. She is also the author of Nightshades, a Tor.com trilogy that is unrelated to her other urban fantasy books. Her comics work includes the story "The Tall Tale Tour" in Project: Cryptid and Archaic a 2025 series from Ahoy Comics.

Biography Melissa Olson was born and raised in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, and studied film and literature at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. After graduation, Olson worked briefly in television development before moving to Madison, Wisconsin. She holds a master's degree in English from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. In addition to comics and fiction, her writing has appeared in newspapers, blogs, online magazines, and academic journals. She has Ehlers–Danlos syndrome.

Appearances In 2019, Melissa gave a Tedx talk in Orillia, ON called "Rethinking the Friendship Paradigm" which discussed her experience as an author and the parent of a child on the autism spectrum.

Olson is also a panelist and moderator at science fiction and fantasy conventions such as Comic-Con and Dragon Con.