About
Martin J. Smith is a veteran journalist and magazine editor who has won more than fifty newspaper and magazine writing awards, and whose crime novels have been nominated for three of the publishing industry’s most prestigious honors, including the Edgar Award, the Anthony Award, and the Barry Award. His 2012 nonfiction book, “The Wild Duck Chase,” about the Federal Duck Stamp Contest and the strange and wonderful world of competitive duck painting, inspired Brian Golden Davis’ documentary film “The Million Dollar Duck,” which won both the Jury and Audience awards at the 2016 Slamdance Film Festival. He also is a former senior editor of the Los Angeles Times Magazine, and was editor-in-chief of Orange Coast magazine in Orange County, Calif., between 2007 and 2016, during which time the Western Publishing Association five times named Orange Coast the best city/metropolitan magazine in the western U.S., including four consecutive wins between 2013 and 2016.
Featured Work
Going to Trinidad: A Doctor, a Colorado Town, and Stories from an Unlikely Gender Crossroads

“Going to Trinidad: A Doctor, a Colorado Town, and Stories from an Unlikely Gender Crossroads," published by Bower House in April 2021, was one of three History category finalists for a 2022 Colorado Book Award, and was long-listed for a “Reading the West” award from the Mountain & Plains Independent Booksellers Association. “For generations of transgender people, ‘Trinidad, Colorado’ was code for ‘sex-change capital of the world,’ ” wrote Susan Stryker, author of “Transgender History: The Roots of Today’s Revolution.” “Martin Smith brings this somewhat secret history to a wider audience, in an expansive, entertaining narrative chock full of interesting people and previously untold stories.” In 2017 the Los Angeles Review of Books called Smith “a master of the essay and human interest profile form” and “one of the best nonfiction writers today.” He lives in Granby, Colorado.
Other Works
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Mr. Las Vegas Has a Bad Knee
2017
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Mr. Las Vegas Has a Bad Knee
2017
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Combustion
2016
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The Disappeared Girl
2014
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The Wild Duck Chase
2012
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Oops: 20 Life Lessons from the Fiascoes That Shaped America
2006
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Poplorica: A Popular History of the Fads, Mavericks, Inventions, and Lore That Shaped Modern America
2004
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Straw Men
2001
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Shadow Image
1998
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Time Release
1997
Awards and Recognition
- Finalist, Anthony Award (1998) Finalist, Edgar Award (2002) Finalist, Barry Award (2002)
- Finalist, Colorado Book Award (History category, for "Going to Trinidad") (2021)
Press and Media Mentions
- Review of "Mr. Las Vegas Has a Bad Knee" from the Los Angeles Review of Books
- Review of "The Wild Duck Chase" from Publishers Weekly
- Review of "Combustion" from Publishers Weekly
- Feature story about female characters (including Smith's alpha female Brenna Kennedy) from Publishers Weekly
- Interview with crime novelist Martin J. Smith from January Magazine
- Interview with crime novelist Martin J. Smith in The Internet Writing Journal
- Archive of Martin J. Smith's culture essays from Denver's 5280 Magazine
- Review of "Going to Trinidad," High Country News
- Review of "Going too Trinidad," Los Angeles Review of Books
- Interview with Martin J. Smith about "Going to Trinidad," Colorado Sun