Phenomenally Latina

Proud Boricua

MAYRA CUEVAS is the author of the young adult novel Does My Body Offend You? (co-written with Marie Marquardt), long-listed for the prestigious PEN/Faulkner Award, named a 2023 Book All Young Georgians Should Read, a New York Public Library Best Books for Teens 2022 and a Target YA Book Club selection. In 2023, she was named Georgia Author of the Year in the Young Adult category.

Her debut picture book, My Abuela is a Bruja, sold at a five-house auction to Knopf, an imprint of Penguin Random House. It is scheduled to release on August 12, 2025 and features illustrations by Eisner Award nominated illustrator, Lorena Alvarez Gómez. We Are Going on a Parranda, a holiday-themed picture book sold to Simon and Schuster’s Beach Lane Books, and is scheduled for release in 2026.

Mayra’s debut adult novel, How to Fake a Southern Gentleman, (co-written with Marie Marquardt) sold to Simon and Schuster’s Primero Sueño/Atria and is scheduled for release in 2026.

Mayra has also written the YA foodie romcom Salty, Bitter, Sweet named a Best Book of Winter by Hypable. Her short story Resilient was published as part of the anthology Foreshadow: Stories to Celebrate the Magic of Reading and Writing YA. A new young adult novel is currently in production with Knopf.

Mayra is a co-founder and board member of the Latinx KidLit Book Festival, the largest non-for-profit organization dedicated to uplifting the voices of Latinx kidlit book creators. Since our inception in 2020, the LKBF has expanded its programs to include school visits, book donations and resources for readers and educators. In recognition for their work, they have received The National Council of Teachers of English’s HERO Award in 2024, the Latinx and Black Caucus's Advocacy Award in 2022, the Library of Congress’ Emerging Strategies Honor and Estée Lauder Companies and National Youth Poet Laureate, Amanda Gorman, WRITING CHANGE award in 2024.

In 2024, Mayra co-founded the LKBF’s Latinx Storytellers Conference—the largest, annual, in-person gathering of Latinx children and adult book writers and illustrators, literary agents, editors and publishing professionals. During this two-day event held in New York, hundreds of Latinx storytellers attend craft masterclasses, professional development sessions, meet with editors and literary agents, and visit the headquarters of global publishing houses and literary agencies.

Mayra is also a member of Las Musas Books authors collective. She has been a guest speaker at the LA Festival of Books, YALLWest, Decatur Book Festival, Six Bridges Book Festival, Los Angeles Libros Festival, and was a keynote speaker at the Tampa Teen Lit Fest. She loves connecting with readers and is passionate about inspiring new writers to create their best work, especially creators from historically marginalized spaces. She has served as faculty at The Highlights Foundation, The Author’s Guild, the Romance Writers of America national conference and spoken at various high schools and colleges across the country. In 2024, she completed a month-long writing residency at the Storyknife Writers Retreat in Homer, Alaska. And in 2025, she was awarded a two-week writing residency at the Hambidge Center in North Georgia.    

Mayra is a former CNN award-winning producer, where she worked for almost 20 years. She reported on a wide range of domestic and international news, most recently as a producer for CNN’s Special Projects unit. In 2021, she received an Anthem Award for the series Champions for Change. She currently teaches in the MFA program at City University of New York, as a Dortort Visiting Professor of Creative Writing.

Mayra earned an Investigative Reporting Masters in Science from Florida International University and a Bachelors in Science of Communication from the University of Sacred Heart in Puerto Rico.

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Mayra keeps her sanity by practicing Buddhist meditation and serves on the management team of Kadampa Meditation Center Georgia. She lives in Atlanta with her husband, a documentary producer, their fluffy cat and a very loud Chihuahua. She is the stepmom to two amazing young men who provide plenty of inspiration for her stories. Their family was featured in Season 2 of Buying and Selling with the Property Brothers.

To learn how to pronounce her name, click here: Mayra + Cuevas

For the latests news visit Mayra’s Instagram page.

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I was 12 years old when I discovered the amazing novels written by Isabel Allende and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Following their example, I decided journalism was the best career choice for someone who wanted to tell stories. Since then, my work has appeared in CNN, HLN, In Session on truTV (Court TV) and EFE International News Agency. I have reported on domestic and international events but nothing compared to the thrill of selling my first YA novel.

Things that make me smile: a silent meditation retreat, cooking for people I love, traveling somewhere new, staying home on a rainy day, Seinfeld and The Office re-runs, playing Scrabble and Monopoly, homemade ice cream, books with funny lines, when my husband suggests EVERY single time that my male protagonists should be based on him.

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