Claudia Guadalupe Martinez

Martinez grew up in El Paso, Texas.[1] She started wanting to become a writer when she was six years old.[2]

Her father passed away when she was eleven, an experience which she drew inspiration from for what would become her debut novel, The Smell of Old Lady Perfume.[2]

She now lives in Chicago.[1]

The Smell of Old Lady Perfume

Her debut novel, a middle grade contemporary titled The Smell of Old Lady Perfume, was published with Cinco Puntos Press in 2008.[2] She wrote the first draft of the novel shortly before moving to Chicago and says that as somebody from El Paso, she grew up admiring the also El Paso-based publisher.[2] When she first submitted the novel to the publisher, she received helpful feedback, but was ultimately declined.[2] The novel is about Chela, a middle schooler whose father who has a stroke and subsequently dies and about how she deals with the loss of a parent.[2]

The novel went on to win the 2009 Paterson Prize for Books for Young People,[3] 2008 Texas Institute of Letters Best Young Adult Book Award,[4] and a 2009 Americas Award Commendation.[5]

Pig Park

Her next novel, Pig Park, is about Masi, a teenager who moves to Pig Park, a neighborhood in real-life Chicago, and builds a pyramid to garner tourist interest to raise money for her parents' failing bakery.[6] It was published by Cinco Puntos Press in September 2014 and the novel won a 2015 Texas Institute of Letters Best Young Adult Book Award[4] and a 2015 NAACS Tejas Foco Best YA Fiction Award,[7] in addition to receiving a starred review from VOYA magazine.

Not a Bean

Her first picture book, Not a Bean, illustrated by Laura Gonzalez, was published by Charlesbridge in 2019.[8]