Malia Márquez was born in New Mexico and grew up in New England. She has worked as a restaurant server & cook, a high school art & film studies teacher, and once upon a time was co-owner of a small tortilla company. Author of This Fierce Blood (2021) and City of Smoke and Sea (2025), she lives with her family in Los Angeles, where she is at work on her next novel.
Photo credit: Diana Feil
New & Forthcoming:
“Press Play” (short story), The Georgia Review~Summer 2025
City of Smoke and Sea (novel), Red Hen Press ~4/25
Published & Awards:
“The Space Between You” (essay, anthology), Becoming Real, Pact Press, 10/24
Winner of Red Hen Press Women’s Prose Prize, City of Smoke and Sea (novel), 2023
Fiction Finalist, This Fierce Blood, Housatonic Book Awards 2022
Silver Medal for Multicultural Fiction, This Fierce Blood, Independent Publishers Book Awards (IPPY) 2022
“Journey” (poetry translation), Poetry 2022
“On Journey” (translation note), Poetry 2022
“A House So Beautiful” (short story), Coffin Bell Journal 2021; nominated for Best of the Net 2021
This Fierce Blood (novel), Acre Books, 2021
"What Happens to the Heart" (music review/ flash fiction), Hobart 2020
"A House So Beautiful" (short story), Shortlisted, Staunch Short Story Prize 2020
Catamount {TFB} (novel), Fiction Semifinalist, Yes Yes Books 2019