Claudia Guadalupe Martínez learned that letters formed words from reading the subtitles of old westerns with her father. The dynamic of growing up between borders in El Paso, Texas inspires her writing. She now lives and works in Illinois. Books include: The Smell of Old Lady Perfume (2008), Pig Park (2014), Not a Bean (2019), Spirit Untamed:The Movie Novel (2021), Still Dreaming (2022), Not a Monster (2023), Not a Dog (2025) and others. Her work has garnered two Texas Institute of Letters Best Young Adult Book Awards, a Paterson Prize for Books for Young People, Américas Award Commendations, Library Guild Awards and multiple starred reviews.
In addition, Claudia teaches professional writing at a university and has written numerous work for hire books for educational publishers like Pearson, Benchmark and Capstone under a pen name. She also regularly provides “sensitivity reads” regarding Latina/ Latino/ Latinx/ Latine culture to publishers and has contributed to several renowned books in this capacity.