Marjorie Liu

Marjorie M. Liu
Born Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Occupation Novelist, poet, comic book writer
Language English, Chinese
Nationality American
Alma mater Lawrence University
University of Wisconsin
Period 2007 to the present
Genre Adventure, urban fantasy, romance, superhero fantasy
Notable works Tiger Eye
NYX
X-23
Dark Wolverine
Website
marjoriemliu.com

Marjorie M. Liu is a New York Times best-selling author of paranormal romance and urban fantasy novels[1] and comic books. Her novels include the 2005 paranormal romance Tiger Eye. Her comics work includes a number Marvel Comics series related to the X-Men and Wolverine, including NYX, X-23, Dark Wolverine, and Astonishing X-Men. She is Chinese-American.

Early life

Marjorie M. Liu was born in Philadelphia, and grew up in Seattle, Washington.[2] Her father hails from Taiwan, while her mother is an American of French, Scottish and Irish descent.[3] 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.[4]

Liu majored in East Asian Languages and Cultures and minored in Biomedical Ethics at the Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin.[2][4] During her undergraduate years there, she also practiced her web design skills by designing a fan site called The Wolverine and Jubilee page, based on her discovery of numerous X-Men fan sites that she found to be well-designed. Although she had never read comic books in her youth, she was familiar with the X-Men through the animated TV series and fan fiction, and to familiarize herself with them more closely, she purchased X-Men and Wolverine comics for reference from Powerhouse Comics in Appleton, Wisconsin. In the process, she became a fan of the franchise herself, and wrote her own X-Men fan fiction, finding it an experimental exercise that improved her storytelling skills.[4][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.[2][4]

Career

Liu at a June 29, 2011 book signing at Midtown Comics Times Square in Manhattan.

Despite enjoying law school, Liu was disillusioned with the life of a lawyer by the time she graduated, and decided to become a writer.[2] After she published poetry, short stories, and non-fiction pieces, she submitted her first novel, a paranormal romantic adventure set in China and the United States called Tiger Eye, which she wrote in a month, to several publishers before it was acquired by Dorchester.[4] In was published in November 2007.[7] She eventually wrote a sequel to Tiger Eye, as well as A Taste of Crimson, the sequel to Liz Maverick's Crimson City, which was published in August 2005.[8]

Seeing a little boy dressed as Spider-Man at a book convention in Tucson, Arizona, Liu remarked to her former literary agent, Lucienne Diver, how she would enjoy writing for Marvel Comics. Diver, who knew an editor who was acquiring authors to write Marvel tie-in novels for Pocket Books, made some inquiries, and found that while the publisher had already employed enough writers to write Spider-Man books amid the release of the 2002 film, they had not hired anyone to write tie-in novels for the X-Men.[2][6]

After writing the X-Men novel Dark Mirror in 2005, Liu began talking with Marvel editors about doing comics work for them. It was three years later that she got her first assignment, 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. She was named writer of "Astonishing X-Men" with artist Mike Perkins in 2013, and the series received media attention for featuring the wedding of Northstar and his boyfriend in #51.[11] Liu was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award in 2013.[12]

In addition to her literary agent, Abigail Koons of The Park Literary Group, Liu is also represented by Elena Stokes of Wunderkind PR.[2]

Personal life

She has been dating author Junot Diaz since 2011.[13]

Her favorite TV shows include Stargate, Castle, Lost Girl, and The Amazing Race.

Bibliography

Novels

Comics

Short stories

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "PAPERBACK BEST SELLERS: September 24, 2006". New York Times. 2006-09-24. Retrieved 2009-06-09.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Liu, Marjorie M. "About the Author", marjoriemliu.com, accessed December 29, 2010.
  3. ↑ Tan. "Marjorie's fantasies". http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2010-10/17/content_11419687.htm''.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 White, Claire E. "A Conversation With Marjorie M. Liu", The Internet Writing Journal, accessed December 29, 2010.
  5. ↑ The Wolverine and Jubilee Page, accessed December 29, 2010.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Press, David. "INTERVIEW: Marjorie Liu talks ‘Dark Wolverine’ and ‘Darkness Calls’.", Daily Planet, June 23, 2009
  7. ↑ Tiger Eye at Amazon.com, accessed December 30, 2010.
  8. ↑ A Taste of Crimson at Amazon.com, accessed December 29, 2010.
  9. ↑ Lin, Peter. "X-23: Daddy’s Little Girl", Here Be Geeks, November 20, 2010
  10. ↑ "Interview with NYX writer Marjorie Liu live from Comic-Con". Comic Vine. Retrieved 2010-03-11.
  11. ↑ "Marvel Comics plans wedding for gay hero Northstar" 5/22/2012, www.sfgate.com - http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/05/22/entertainment/e091701D28.DTL&tsp=1
  12. ↑ Veselinovic, Milena (16 December 2014). "How a lawyer left the courtroom to discover she had X-Men powers.". CNN (CNN). Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  13. ↑ Swidey, Neil (December 23, 2012). "Acclaimed novelist Junot Diaz delivers". The Boston Globe. Retrieved September 18, 2014.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Marjorie Liu.