Melina Costello has devoted 25 years to the practice of meditative disciplines, exploring psychologically sensitive ways to integrate diverse modes of spiritual experience. About her early life she writes, “I grew up in a large family of eleven children in the Midwest. In 1967, my father took our entire family on a five month trek through 30 European countries in a Volkswagen minibus. He hoped I would one day write a book about this grand misadventure, but my heart had another calling--to write about the inner life of the soul.”

Review: "Melina Costello writes with astonishing beauty and precision, providing a dramatic backdrop for the process of soul exploration while preserving the mystery and wonder of the human spirit." Thomas Burke, Madison, WI

A freelance writer, editor, and poet, I received the Robert Lee Strauss Poetry Prize from the University of Cincinnati in 1983, where I majored in creative writing and journalism. Former publisher of Rabid Chalk Poetry Anthology, assistant editor of Cincinnati Poetry Review, and literary judge on the Cincinnati Literary Arts Council, I have written and directed plays for children's theater, written and illustrated a children's book (published 1990), and recently completed my second non-fiction book. A teacher in early childhood education (Montessori kindergarten, preschool) in Oregon, I have two children: a son who is in middle school and passionately plays the guitar, and a daughter who is studying stage acting in Switzerland.