Vanessa Place is an American writer and criminal appellate attorney. Place earned a BA at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, an MFA at Antioch University, and a JD at Boston University. She is the co-director of the Los Angeles-based Les Figues Press. Place has also worked as an occasional screenwriter on television shows such as Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Xena: Warrior Princess with producer Liz Friedman.