Malia Márquez is the author of City of Smoke and Sea and This Fierce Blood. Born in New Mexico, raised in New England, and now living in Los Angeles, she draws on a background in visual, performing, and movement arts, including sculpture, textiles, martial arts, yoga, and dance, in writing that weaves together place, memory, inheritance, and the charged sparks of the here and now. Rooted in realism but drawn toward the uncanny, her work explores deconstructed narrative through fractured form, satire, comedy, and liminal states, stretching the boundaries of conventional storytelling. Her fiction, essays, and translations have appeared in Poetry, Literary Hub, The Georgia Review, and elsewhere; she also teaches creative writing.
Photo credit: Diana Feil
New & Forthcoming:
“Press Play” (short story), The Georgia Review~Summer 2025
“You Want to Be a Better Writer? Observe Chicken Behavior” (essay), Literary Hub, 5/25
Judy Richardson on Civil Rights: Then— and Now (profile), Antioch Common Thread, 5/25
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