Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Silvia Moreno-Garcia (born 25 April 1981) is a Mexican-Canadian novelist, short story writer, editor, and publisher.

Life and education

Moreno-Garcia was born 25 April 1981 in Mexico. Both her parents worked for radio stations. She moved to Canada in 2004. Moreno-Garcia completed a master's degree in science and technology studies at the University of British Columbia in 2016. Her master's thesis focused on eugenics in the work of H. P. Lovecraft. Moreno-Garcia lives in Vancouver.

Career

Moreno-Garcia began her career publishing in various fiction magazines and books, including Exile Quarterly. She was a finalist for the 2011 Manchester Fiction Prize. Her first short story collection, This Strange Way of Dying, was published in September 2013 by Exile Editions. Her second collection, Love and Other Potions, came out in 2014 from Innsmouth Free Press. Her debut novel, Signal to Noise, was published in 2015 by Solaris Books.

She serves as publisher of Innsmouth Free Press, an imprint devoted to weird fiction. With Paula R. Stiles, she co-edited the books Historical Lovecraft (2011), Future Lovecraft (2012), Sword and Mythos (2014), and She Walks in Shadows (2015). With Orrin Grey, she co-edited Fungi (2013). With Lavie Tidhar, she edited The Jewish Mexican Literary Review. In 2016, she and Stiles won a World Fantasy Award—Anthology for She Walks in Shadows.

As of October 2019, Moreno-Garcia is a book columnist for The Washington Post.

In February 2020, her book Gods of Jade and Shadow was announced as a finalist for the 2019 Nebula Award for Best Novel.

Moreno-Garcia's novel Mexican Gothic was published in 2021 to critical acclaim, received the Aurora Award for Best Novel, Locus Award for Best Horror Novel, and British Fantasy Award for Best Horror Novel, and was shortlisted for the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel and Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel. Mexican Gothic was selected for the 2023 edition of Canada Reads, where it was championed by Tasnim Geedi.

Moreno-Garcia's 2022 novel The Daughter of Doctor Moreau was a 2023 nominee for the Hugo Award for Best Novel. Her novel Silver Nitrate was published in 2023.

Moreno-Garcia's tenth novel, The Seventh Veil of Salome, was published in August 2024. Kirkus Reviews called the book a "rousing success," noting the 1950s historical drama's strong Golden Age-inspired dialogue and suspense. The New York Times reviewer Lauren LeBlanc wrote of Moreno-Garcia's writing:"Books that skew more cinematic than conventionally literary are often dismissed as formulaic, but in Moreno-Garcia’s skillful hands, you’ll find the satisfaction of richly drawn characters, saturated settings and deftly constructed plot twists. Inhaling her backlist has been the unexpected delight of my summer. No matter the genre — gothic, horror, noir — she’ll embody its essence with a verve all her own."

Adaptations

In August 2020, Milojo Productions and ABC Signature announced they would produce a limited series adaptation of Mexican Gothic, to be released on the streaming platform Hulu. Moreno-Garcia would serve as executive producer. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the author stated that the series was estimated to be "between 8 and 10 episodes max." In April 2024, Moreno-Garcia confirmed Hulu would not be moving forward with the adaptation.

As of January 2025, a television adaptation of The Daughter of Doctor Moreau penned by Debra Moore Muñoz was in development.