Melissa J White is the owner of Whitespace Creative, LLC, a communication design studio specializing in custom designed websites and content development.
She is also the owner of BlogshopWorld, and presents classes and workshops on blogging and blog design.
After studying with actor Ted Liss and working in the box office of the Apollo theater in Chicago, Melissa graduated from St. John’s College with a major in Western philosophy and a minor in math, and was awarded the Henry Austin Prize for Poetry at graduation for her poem, “Zafu.” Her reviews, interviews, poetry and fiction have been published in Whole Earth Review, THE magazine, Indian Artist magazine, the Santa Fe Reporter, Crosswinds, Fish Drum and Noctiluca—an English language magazine from Japan—among others. Her novel Dizzy Sushi, based on her year teaching English conversation in Japan, won a Recursos de Santa Fe Discovery prize and has been accepted for publication by Tres Chicas Books.
Melissa was a founding member and past president of Intermezzo of the Santa Fe Opera from1999-2001 and was on the Opera’s Business Council from 2002-2006.
Melissa served on the City of Santa Fe Arts Commission as chair of the marketing committee from 2006-2010, and spearheaded the new branding initiative on the Commission’s 20th anniversary, including a new logo, tagline and social media plan.
In August of 2008, Melissa finished a graduate Certificate in Screenwriting at NMFI (New Mexico Filmmakers Intensive) studying with Tom Musca, Jonathan Wacks, Kirk Ellis and Diane Schneier-Perrin. She was a staff member of the Screenwriting Conference in Santa Fe from 2007-2011, and has worked in the New Mexico film industry as a script supervisor and assistant production coordinator.
Melissa’s directorial debut, the short film “Wastewater”, premiered at the New Mexico Film Expo in September, 2009, and has also been shown at the Santa Fe Independent Film Festival and the Auxiliary Dogs Film Festival in Albuquerque. Her other environmental films include a four-minute art-umentary, “Mixing: A Dialogue on Wastewater” which will screen at RioFest in 2010, and a three-minute How-To on “Backyard Composting with Worms” for Milagro Compost.
In 2011, she became the first Blog Editor for the Santa Fe Film Festival and coordinated 4 bloggers publishing over 40 blog posts on film and the film industry, as well as previews and reviews of films and panels during the Festival and the three months leading up to it.
Melissa has made Santa Fe her home since 1981 with her husband and three children, their cats Orange and Grey, and their new dog, Nanny.
