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.

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. Her debut picture book sold at a five-house auction to Knopf, an imprint of Penguin Random House. A second holiday-themed picture book sold in 2023 to Paula Wiseman Books, an imprint of Simon and Schuster. A new young adult novel is currently in production with Knopf and she is currently developing her debut adult title in collaboration with Alloy Entertainment, a division of Warner Media Discovery.

Mayra is a co-founder and board member of the Latinx KidLit Book Festival, recipient of the National Council of Teachers of English, 2022 Latinx and Black Caucus's Advocacy Award. She 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 was awarded a month-long residency at the Storyknife Writers Retreat in Alaska.

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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