| Birth Place: | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Language: | English, Chinese |
| Nationality: | American |
| Alma Mater: | Lawrence University University of Wisconsin Law School |
| Period: | 2007–present |
| Genre: | Adventure, urban fantasy, romance, superhero fantasy |
| Notableworks: | Monstress Tiger Eye NYX X-23 Dark Wolverine |
Marjorie M. Liu is an American New York Times best-selling author and comic book writer. She is acclaimed for her horror fantasy comic Monstress, and her paranormal romance and urban fantasy novels[1] including The Hunter Kiss and Tiger Eye series. Her work for Marvel Comics includes NYX, X-23, Dark Wolverine, and Astonishing X-Men. 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 to win the Eisner Award for Best Writer for her work on Monstress.[2]
Marjorie M. Liu was born in Philadelphia, and grew up in Seattle, Washington.[3] Her father is Taiwanese, while her mother is an American of French, Scottish and Irish descent.[4] She developed an early love of reading, from books such as Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie books, and the works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Joseph Campbell, Charles de Lint and Jorge Luis Borges.[5]
Liu majored in East Asian Languages and Cultures and minored in Biomedical Ethics at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin.[3] [5] 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 through the animated TV series and via fan fiction. She first purchased X-Men and Wolverine comics for reference for her fanfic from Powerhouse Comics in Appleton, Wisconsin. Writing fanfic helped her improve her storytelling skills.[5] [6]
After graduating, she attended law school at the University of Wisconsin, 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.[3] [5]
Despite enjoying law school, Liu was disillusioned with the life of a lawyer. Instead she decided to become a writer.[3] 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,[5] and published in November 2007.[7] 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.[8]
After seeing a little boy dressed as Spider-Man at a book convention in Tucson, Arizona, Liu told her former literary agent Lucienne Diver that she would enjoy writing for Marvel Comics. Diver, who knew a Marvel acquisition editor seeking authors for Marvel tie-in novels at Pocket Books, 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.[3] [6]
Liu produced the X-Men 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.[6] [9] [10] She served as co-writer on Marvel's Daken: Dark Wolverine with Daniel Way, and wrote the X-23 series, which ended with #21.
Liu wrote the final 21 issues for Marvel's Astonishing X-Men series with artist Mike Perkins from 2012 to 2013. The series received media attention for featuring Marvel Comics' first gay wedding between Northstar and longterm partner Kyle in issue #51 (August 2012).[11] 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.[12] Liu was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award in 2013.[13]
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.[14] [15]
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.[16]
In July 2018 Liu became the first woman in the 30-year history of the Eisner Awards 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.[2]
As of December 2012 Liu had been in a relationship with author Junot Díaz for approximately a year, and living with him in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[17]
| Title | Also In | Publication Date | Comments | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tiger Eye | 2005 | |||
| 2 | Shadow Touch | 2006 | |||
| 3 | The Red Heart of Jade | 2006 | |||
| 3.5 | A Dream of Stone and Shadows | Dark Dreamers | Sep 2006 | NYT Best Seller | |
| 4 | Eye of Heaven | 2006 | |||
| 5 | Soul Song | 2007 | |||
| 6 | The Last Twilight | 2008 | |||
| 7 | The Wild Road | 2008 | |||
| 8 | The Fire King | 2009 | |||
| 9 | In the Dark of Dreams | 2010 | |||
| 10 | Within the Flames | 2011 | |||
| 11 | Where the Heart Lives[18] | Aug 2012 |
| Title | Also In | Publication Date | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Iron Hunt | 2008 | ||
| 2 | Darkness Calls | 2008 | ||
| 2.5 | Hunter Kiss | Wild Thing[19] | May 2007 | |
| 2.6 | Armor of Roses | Inked[20] Armor of Roses and the Silver Voice[21] | Jan 2010 | |
| 3 | A Wild Light | Jul 2010 | ||
| 3.5 | The Silver Voice | Armor of Roses and the Silver Voice | Dec 2011 | |
| 4 | The Mortal Bone | 2011 | ||
| 5 | Labyrinth of Stars | 2014 |
| Anthology or Collection | Contents | PublicationDate | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dark Dreamers[22] | "A Dream of Stone and Shadows" (Dirk & Steele noella) | Sep 2006 | |
| Holidays are Hell | "Six" | Jan 2007 | |
| Wild Thing | "Hunter Kiss" | May 2007 | |
| My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon | "Where the Heart Lives" | Dec 2007 | |
| Hotter than Hell (edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Kim Harrison) | "Minotaur in Stone" | Jun 2008 | |
| Huntress | The Robber Bride | Jun 2009 | |
| Never After | "The Tangleroot Palace" | Nov 2009 | |
| Inked | "Armor of Roses" | Jan 2010 | |
| Masked (edited by Lou Anders) | "Call Her Savage" (a.k.a. "The Light and the Fury") | Jul 2010 | |
| Songs of Love and Death (edited by Gardner Dozois and George R. R. Martin) | "After the Blood" | Nov 2010 | |
| Armor of Roses and The Silver Voice | "Armor of Roses" The Silver Voice | Dec 2011 | |
| An Apple for the Creature (edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni Kelner) | Sympathy for the Bones | Sep 2012 | |
| The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination (edited by John Joseph Adams) | "The Last Dignity of Man" | Feb 2013 | |
| The Starlit Wood (edited by Dominick Perisen and Navah Wolfe) | "Briar and Rose" | Oct 2016 |
| Year | Work | Award Name | Category | Result | Ref | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | A Taste of Crimson | PEARL Award | Best Futuristic | [23] | ||
| n/a | n/a | PEARL Award | Best New Author | |||
| Tiger Eye | Tiger Eye | Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award | Best Contemporary Paranormal Romance | [24] | ||
| 2008 | The Last Twilight | Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award | Best Shapeshifter Romance | [25] | ||
| The Iron Hunt | Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award | Best Urban Fantasy | [26] | |||
| 2011 | The Mortal Bone | Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Nominee | Paranormal Romance | [27] | ||
| Within the Flames | Romantic Times Book of the Year | Editor's Choice | [28] | |||
| 2012 | The Mortal Bone | Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award | Urban Fantasy Worldbuilding | [29] | ||
| 2013 | Astonishing X-Men | GLAAD Media Award | Outstanding Comic Book | |||
| 2016 | Monstress | Eisner Awards | Best Writer | [30] [31] | ||
| 2017 | Han Solo | Eisner Awards | Best Limited Series | |||
| Monstress | Eisner Awards | Best Publication for Teens | ||||
| Monstress, Volume 1: Awakening | Hugo Award | Best Graphic Story | [32] | |||
| 2018 | Monstress, Volume 2: The Blood | Hugo Award | Best Graphic Story | [33] | ||
| 2019 | Monstress, Volume 3: Haven | Bram Stoker Award | Best Graphic Novel | |||
| Monstress, Volume 3: Haven | Hugo Award | Best Graphic Story | [34] | |||
| Monstress, Volume 4: The Chosen | Bram Stoker Award | Best Graphic Novel | [35] | |||
| 2020 | Monstress, Volume 4: The Chosen | Hugo Award | Best Graphic Story | [36] | ||
| 2022 | Monstress, Volume 6: The Vow | Hugo Award | Best Graphic Story |