Marjorie M. Liu is an American ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' best-selling author and comic book writer. She is acclaimed for her horror fantasy comic '' Monstress'', and her paranormal romance and

urban fantasy Urban fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy which places imaginary and unreal elements in an approximation of a contemporary urban setting. The combination provides the writer with quixotic plot-drivers, unusual character traits, and a platform for c ...

novels including ''The Hunter Kiss'' and ''Tiger Eye'' series. Her work for Marvel Comics includes '' NYX'', ''

X-23 Laura Kinney (born X-23; Pseudonym, codename Wolverine (character), Wolverine) is a fictional superhero appearing in media (communication), media published by Marvel Entertainment, most commonly in association with the X-Men. The character was cr ...

'', '' Dark Wolverine'', and ''

Astonishing X-Men ''Astonishing X-Men'' is the name of four X-Men comic book series from Marvel Comics, the first two of which were limited series. The third volume, an ongoing series, began in 2004, with its first run written by Joss Whedon and art by John Cassada ...

''. In 2015 Image Comics debuted her creator-owned series ''Monstress'', for which she was nominated for an Eisner Award for Best New Series. In 2017 she won a Hugo Award for the first ''Monstress'' trade paperback collection. In July 2018 she became the first woman in the 30-year history of the

Eisner Awards The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, are prizes given for creative achievement in American comic books, sometimes referred to as the comics industry's equivalent of the Academy Awards. They are named in ...

to win the Eisner Award for Best Writer for her work on ''Monstress''.

Early life

Marjorie M. Liu was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

, and grew up in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region ...

.Liu, Marjorie M
"About the Author"
marjoriemliu.com, accessed December 29, 2010. Her father is Taiwanese, while her mother is an American of French, Scottish and Irish descent. She developed an early love of reading, from books such as

Laura Ingalls Wilder Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder (February 7, 1867 – February 10, 1957) was an American writer, mostly known for the '' Little House on the Prairie'' series of children's books, published between 1932 and 1943, which were based on her childhood ...

's ''

Little House on the Prairie The ''Little House on the Prairie'' books is a series of American children's novels written by Laura Ingalls Wilder (b. Laura Elizabeth Ingalls). The stories are based on her childhood and adolescence in the American Midwest (Wisconsin, Kansas, ...

'' books, and the works of

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll a ...

, Joseph Campbell,

Charles de Lint Charles de Lint (born December 22, 1951) is a Canadian writer of Dutch, Spanish, and Japanese ancestry. He is married to, and plays music with, MaryAnn Harris. Primarily a writer of fantasy fiction, he has composed works of urban fantasy, cont ...

and

Jorge Luis Borges Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known b ...

.White, Claire E
"A Conversation With Marjorie M. Liu"
The Internet Writing Journal, accessed December 29, 2010. Liu majored in East Asian Languages and Cultures and minored in

Biomedical Ethics Bioethics is both a field of study and professional practice, interested in ethical issues related to health (primarily focused on the human, but also increasingly includes animal ethics), including those emerging from advances in biology, me ...

Lawrence University Lawrence University is a private liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Appleton, Wisconsin. Founded in 1847, its first classes were held on November 12, 1849. Lawrence was the second college in the U.S. to be founded as a coeducati ...

Appleton, Wisconsin Appleton ( mez, Ahkōnemeh) is a city in Outagamie, Calumet, and Winnebago counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. One of the Fox Cities, it is situated on the Fox River, southwest of Green Bay and north of Milwaukee. Appleton is the c ...

. During her undergraduate years, she practiced her web design skills by designing a fan site called ''The Wolverine and Jubilee page'', after her discovery of numerous X-Men fan sites that she admired. Although she had never read comic books as a child, she was familiar with the

X-Men The X-Men are a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, first appearing in ''The X-Men'' #1 by artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby and writer/editor Stan Lee in 1963. Although initially cancelled in 1970 due to lo ...

through the animated TV series and via fan fiction. She first purchased ''X-Men'' and ''

Wolverine The wolverine (), (''Gulo gulo''; ''Gulo'' is Latin for " glutton"), also referred to as the glutton, carcajou, or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae. It is a muscul ...

'' comics for reference for her fanfic from Powerhouse Comics in

. Writing fanfic helped her improve her storytelling skills.Press, David
"INTERVIEW: Marjorie Liu talks 'Dark Wolverine' and 'Darkness Calls'."
, Daily Planet, June 23, 2009 After graduating, she attended law school at the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, ...

, as she was impressed with their East Asian legal center, and the presence of top U.S. experts in Biotech Law on the University's faculty. She found an internship in Beijing working at the Foreign Agriculture Service at the U.S. Embassy, which at the time, was dealing with the Chinese government's new rules regarding the import of genetically modified food. She graduated in May 2003, and was soon admitted to the bar.

Career

Despite enjoying law school, Liu was disillusioned with the life of a lawyer. Instead she decided to become a writer. She published poetry, short stories, and non-fiction pieces, then submitted her first novel, a paranormal romantic adventure set in China and the United States entitled ''Tiger Eye''. She wrote it in one month. She submitted it to several publishers before it was acquired by Dorchester, and published in November 2007. She wrote a sequel to ''Tiger Eye'', then produced ''A Taste of Crimson'', the sequel to Liz Maverick's ''Crimson City'', which was published in August 2005. After seeing a little boy dressed as Spider-Man at a book convention in

Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

, Liu told her former literary agent Lucienne Diver that she would enjoy writing for

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...

. Diver, who knew a Marvel acquisition editor seeking authors for Marvel tie-in novels at

Pocket Books Pocket Books is a division of Simon & Schuster that primarily publishes paperback books. History Pocket Books produced the first mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in the United States in early 1939 and revolutionized the publishing ...

, made inquiries. Pocket had already hired enough authors for the ''Spider-Man'' books, but they had not hired anyone to write tie-in novels for the ''X-Men''. Liu produced the ''

'' novel ''Dark Mirror'' for Pocket in 2005, but it was three years before that she landed her first comics assignment at Marvel, the ''X-Men'' spin-off '' NYX''. She served as co-writer on Marvel's '' Daken: Dark Wolverine'' with

Daniel Way Daniel Way is an American comic book writer, known for his work on Marvel Comics series such as '' Wolverine: Origins'' and ''Deadpool''. Career Way received the Xeric Grant in 2000 for his debut publication, '' Violent Lifestyle''. Through ''Vio ...

, and wrote the ''

'' series, which ended with #21. Liu wrote the final 21 issues for Marvel's ''

'' series with artist Mike Perkins from 2012 to 2013. The series received media attention for featuring Marvel Comics' first gay wedding between

Northstar Northstar may refer to: * Polaris, a star Arts and entertainment * Northstar (band), an emo band from Alabama * Northstar (rap group), a rap group affiliated with the Wu-Tang Clan * "Northstar", a 2019 song by XXXTentacion from the album ''Bad Vi ...

and longterm partner Kyle in issue #51 (August 2012). According to Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Axel Alonso, the issue comes as a response to real-world legalization of same sex marriage in New York. Liu was nominated for a

GLAAD Media Award The GLAAD Media Award is an accolade bestowed by GLAAD to recognize and honor various branches of the media for their outstanding representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community and the issues that affect their liv ...

in 2013. In 2015, Liu taught a course at MIT on comic book writing and participated at the VONA/VOICES Workshop as guest lecturer at UC Berkeley for popular fiction. In 2015 Image Comics debuted Liu's comics series, '' Monstress'', which gained wide publicity for its exploration of racism, the effects of war, and feminism. In July 2018 Liu became the first woman in the 30-year history of the

to win the Eisner Award for Best Writer for her work on ''Monstress''. She shared the award with writer Tom King, who received it for his work on '' Batman'' books and ''

Mister Miracle Mister Miracle (Scott Free) is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. He first appeared in ''Mister Miracle'' #1 (April 1971) and was created by Jack Kirby. Publication history Mister Miracle debuted in ...

''.

Personal life

As of December 2012 Liu had been in a relationship with author

Junot Díaz Junot Díaz (; born December 31, 1968) is a Dominican-American writer, creative writing professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and was fiction editor at '' Boston Review''. He also serves on the board of advisers for Freed ...

for approximately a year, and living with him in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston ...

Bibliography

Dirk & Steele series

''Hunter Kiss'' series

Novels

* ''A Taste of Crimson: Crimson City, Book 2'' (2005) * '' X-Men: Dark Mirror'' (2005) * ''Sympathy for the Bones'' (February 2014) also in ''An Apple for the Creature'' * ''After the Blood'' (July 2014) also in ''Never After'' * ''Call Her Savage'' (December 2014) also in ''Masked''

Anthologies and collections

Comics

*'' NYX: No Way Home'' #1 - 6 (

, 2008–2009) *'' Dark Wolverine'' #75 - 90 (co-written with

, Marvel Comics, 2009–2010) *''

'' Vol. 2 #1- Women of Marvel one-shot (Marvel Comics, 2010) *'' Black Widow'' Vol. 4 #1 - 5 (Marvel Comics, 2010) *''Girl Comics'' #3 (Wolverine & Jubilee story only, Marvel Comics, 2010) *''Wolverine: Road to Hell'' - one-shot (Marvel Comics, 2010) *'' Daken: Dark Wolverine'' #1 - 9 (co-written with Daniel Way, Marvel Comics, 2010–2011) (continuation of ''Dark Wolverine'') *''

'' Vol. 3 #1 - 21 (Marvel Comics, 2010–2012) *''Jim Henson's Storyteller'' ("Puss in Boots", Archaia, 2013) *''

'' Vol. 3 #48 - #68, (Marvel Comics, 2012–2013) *''X-Termination'' #1 (Marvel Comics, 2013) *''X-Treme X-Men'' Vol. 2 #13 (Marvel Comics, 2013) *''Legends of Red Sonja #4'' (Dynamite, 2014) *'' Monstress'' (Image Comics, 2015-) *''Star Wars: Han Solo'' (Marvel Comics, 2016) *'' The Night Eaters'' ( Abrams, 2022)

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* *
Off The Shelf Podcast Interview

The Wolverine and Jubilee Page
accessed December 29, 2010. — Fan site designed by Marjorie Liu. {{DEFAULTSORT:Liu, Marjorie Living people 21st-century American novelists American women novelists American women writers of Chinese descent American writers of Taiwanese descent American writers of Chinese descent American romantic fiction writers American novelists of Asian descent American people of French descent American people of Irish descent American people of Scottish descent Fan fiction writers Hugo Award-winning writers American lawyers American women lawyers Women romantic fiction writers 21st-century American women writers Lawrence University alumni Eisner Award winners for Best Writer American female comics artists Year of birth missing (living people)