Born and raised in Nebraska Melissa Amateis grew up on a farm near Bridgeport, Nebraska. She holds a BA in history from Chadron State College and an MA in history from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Amateis is the editorial assistant for Great Plains Quarterly and Great Plains Research, the two academic journals produced by the Center for Great Plains Studies, and is the author of Nebraska POW Camps: A History of World War II Prisoners in the Heartland (The History Press: 2014). She lives in Lincoln with her daughter.