Maria Kelson

Maria Kelson’s NOT THE KILLING KIND won the inaugural Eleanor Taylor Bland Award for Crime Fiction Writers of Color from Sisters in Crime while a work in progress. Twelve years in the making, the novel is set in northern California’s redwood country and was inspired by her family literacy work with undocumented mothers. Maria published two poetry books (as Maria Melendez) with University of Arizona Press, which were finalists for the PEN Center USA Literary Award and the Colorado Book Award. She lives in Wyoming, where she’s writing a new thriller set near Yellowstone National Park. Connect at MariaKelson.com.