M. E. Macuaga
Nonfiction
Santa Monica, CA
Born and raised in Tokyo, M.E. Macuaga is a Japanese Bolivian bilingual storyteller, translator, and escape room addict who loves to write across genres and for all ages. Her diverse work can be found now or soon in HAD, Superpresent, The Seventh Wave, Luna Station Quarterly, Flash Fiction Magazine, Oyster River Pages, Marvel Comics, and elsewhere; she is the winner of Flash Point SF’s 2024 Drabble Contest and has been a finalist for the SmokeLong Quarterly Fellowship, the NYC Midnight Flash Fiction and Short Screenplay competitions, and Killer Nashville’s Claymore Awards for Best Suspense Novel, among others. Her writing has also been shortlisted for a Fractured Lit Anthology Prize and was a quarterfinalist in Filmmatic’s Sci-Fi/Fantasy Awards, while excerpts from her memoir-in-progress won a nomination for The Florida Review Editors’ Award in Creative Nonfiction and an honorable mention in CRAFT’s Memoir Excerpt & Essay Contest. A recipient of awards including the California Wellness Foundation Fellowship, the Mary Ellen State Fellowship, and the Ragdale Foundation residency, M.E. is honored to be supported in addition by Hedgebrook, Tin House, Jentel Arts, Storyknife, International Thriller Writers, Sisters in Crime, Vermont Studio Center, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.
M.E. holds a BA from Stanford University where she studied fiction under Ursula K. Le Guin, Gilbert Sorrentino, and John L’Heureux, and an MFA in film production from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts, where her work was acknowledged with the John Huston Directing Scholarship, a Tomorrow's Filmmaker award from the Sonoma International Film Festival, and a Student Emmy. In her television career, she has served as writer, editor, and executive producer for Warner Bros. Discovery and other networks, crafting long-running series such as OutDaughtered, Seeking Sister Wife, and Dr. G: Medical Examiner. She currently lives in California and Japan with three sweet humans and two cats, Mimi and Potato.