Meliza Bañales (aka Missy Fuego) is an author, advocate, and adventurer. They are originally from Los Angeles, where they grew up the youngest of four children to a Mexican-American father and a Scottish-Dutch mother. They were a fixture in the Spoken-Word, Slam, & Queer artist communities of the SF Bay Area from 1996-2011, touring with Sister Spit and Body Heat. They competed on three national poetry slam teams ('98, '99, & '02) and were Grand Slam Champion in 2002. Their short films have appeared at Frameline and Outfest, and they were the inaugural winner of the Jury Award at the Los Angeles Transgender Film Festival in 2011. They were a 2016 Lambda Literary Finalist for Best LGBTQ Debut Fiction for their novel Life Is Wonderful, People Are Terrific. Their work has been anthologized in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Europe since 1997 and has been featured on NPR, Encyclopedia Brittanica, Lodestar Quarterly, and The Washington Square Review. They live in Los Angeles and Central Coast California.