Martin J. Smith is an accomplished author and journalist, who has won more than fifty newspaper and magazine writing awards throughout his career. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Smith began his writing career while studying at Pennsylvania State University in the late 1970s. His 15-year career as a newspaper reporter took him to various parts of the world, including Nevada's Mustang Ranch bordello, riot-torn streets of Los Angeles, revolutionary streets of Manila, pre-glasnost Siberia, and the then-new frontier of cyberspace.
Smith's writing expertise spans across various genres, including fiction and nonfiction. He has written five crime novels, with the latest one being 'Combustion,' released in 2016. His fiction work has received critical acclaim, with international bestseller James Ellroy describing his debut novel, 'Time Release,' as a 'whipcord thriller full of deftly drawn characters, intrigue, and taut action.' Ellroy also praised Smith as 'a thriller force to be reckoned with.' Smith's nonfiction books include 'Oops: 20 Life Lessons from the Fiascoes That Shaped America' and 'Poplorica: A Popular History of the Fads, Mavericks, Inventions and Lore That Shaped Modern America,' both co-authored with Patrick J. Kiger. His latest nonfiction book, 'Going to Trinidad: A Doctor, a Colorado Town, and Stories from an Unlikely Gender Crossroads,' will be published in April 2021.
Aside from his writing, Smith has also enjoyed a successful career in magazine editing. He was the senior editor of the Los Angeles Times Magazine and the editor-in-chief of Orange Coast magazine in Orange County, California. During his tenure at Orange Coast, the magazine won five times as the best city/metropolitan magazine in the western U.S., including four consecutive wins between 2013 and 2016. As an editor, Smith worked with various Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists and bestselling authors, such as Anne Lamott, Joseph Wambaugh, Walter Mosley, Amy Tan, Martin Dugard, Janet Fitch, Edward Humes, J.R. Moehringer, and James Ellroy.
In addition to his writing and editing career, Smith is also a faculty member of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers and taught an undergraduate workshop course called 'Writing the Novel' at Chapman University in Orange, California. He now lives in Granby, Colorado, where he is a contributing writer for Stanford Business magazine, a quarterly essayist for Denver's 5280, and frequently writes for Adventure Journal. Smith also helped found the Grand County Community of Writers through the local library district and is vice president of the board of Habitat for Humanity of Grand County.