Jennifer Maritza McCauley

Dr. Jennifer Maritza McCauley is the author of the cross-genre collection SCAR ON/SCAR OFF (Stalking Horse Press), the short story collections When Trying to Return Home (Counterpoint Press) and Recognition (University of Wisconsin Press) (‘27), the poetry collections Kinds of Grace (Flowersong Press) VERSUS and Tumbao ( ‘27, ‘29/Texas Review Press) and the speculative fiction collection Neon Steel (Cornerstone). She is the recipient of fellowships from National Endowment for the Arts, Kimbilio, CantoMundo, and Sundress Academy for the Arts. Her poetry collection SCAR ON/SCAR OFF received an Independent Publishers Book Award and her short story collection When Trying to Return Home, was a New York Times Editors’ Choice, a New York Public Library Book of the Day, one of the Best Books of the Month by Kirkus Reviews, Ms. Magazine, and The Southern Book Review and Today called it one of the “Best Books to Read in 2023.” She has received an MFA from Florida International University and a PhD in English from the University of Missouri-Columbia. She is presently an assistant professor in English at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

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Featured Work

NEON STEEL

Set in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the 1990s and early 2000s, Neon Steel is Jennifer Maritza McCauley’s love letter to millennial nerd culture. Anime fans, vampires, indie rappers, robots, comic book fans, and thrill seekers find their way through the Steel City’s neighborhoods and haunts. A young girl discovers an underground world of Afro Otaku who change the way she sees the city; a high school student discovers a kindred spirit in a Bomba girl; The Terminator (1984) is reimagined as a josei story featuring a purple loc’d robot; and a secret coven of vampires who hide out in Pittsburgh steel mills risk being discovered after they lose one of their own. Magical realist and neon-lit, Neon Steel faithfully follows a group of nerds and the magic that excites them, bringing to life a city and a state of being.

Buy At The Kimilio Bookshop

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Five Questions for JEnnifer maritza mcCauley

• As a writer, what do you feel is your superpower(s)?

  Empathy. I care deeply about how folks feel and how they approach the world. I consider caring for people is its own type of superpower, more than anything else. Also my mother. She’s my superpower. She’s wonderful, kind and immensely strong. I look up to her endlessly. She is mi corazón.

• Who/what inspired you most when writing NEON STEEL?

  The city of Pittsburgh and growing up in the delicate time between the late 90s and early 2000s. I spent my youth there and wanted to capture it as if it were in a time capsule.

• What came first for you—setting, plot, characters? How did this help you develop the rest of the story?

  The characters. Everything is about character to me. I think character informs setting, culture, plot and how the story develops. Everything to me is how the character perceives, grasps, eschews, hates or loves the world around them.

• What part of NEON STEEL did you have the hardest time writing? Why?

  There wasn’t really a ‘hard’ time writing Neon Steel. It’s the easiest book I’ve ever written; every moment of writing I enjoyed the process. It was a book that was a kind of release, I wanted it to capture Black joy. When you enjoy doing something, somehow, it’s easier to do.

• What's your idea of a good day?

  No external demands, jazz, coffee, wine and a good chair where I can write and read. These things motivate me, make me want to enjoy life.