Melissa Baker is an author and trauma‑informed storyteller from Sydney, Australia. From the moment she fed a sheet into a typewriter at nine, Mel has been shaping worlds in words—stories that invite empathy, courage, and transformation. Her non‑fiction work draws from lived experience across childhood adversity, frontline trauma work, and military service. Readers know her for Sleeping Under the Bridge, the opening to her memoir trilogy, and Building the Bridge (2026), the latest instalment exploring connection, identity, and becoming. She is also the author of A Two‑Way Street, Painting Beauty with the Ashes, and Conflict to Hope. Each book weaves resilience and hope into narratives that meet people in the quiet moments of their lives. Mel’s storytelling now extends into film. Her first short film, Say My Name (2023), based on Sleeping Under the Bridge, received more than 90 international awards.