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Marissa was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She was nominated for the City of Albuquerque Poet Laureate in 2024. She is a graduate of New Mexico State University (2003) with a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture/Animal Science/Equine Management. Marissa survived an almost fatal work accident, which left her unable to attend vet school. She turned to writing and spoken word as a method of healing. Marissa continues to write as a tool for managing anxiety, stress, and trauma, as well as an expression of love, independence, and sexuality. Marissa is a mother of two daughters, loves gardening, cooking, art, travel, and playing pool. She currently resides in Albuquerque. 

She has been published in many periodicals and anthologies around the world. Marissa is the founder of Read or Green Books, and is the Co-Founder and Creative Director for The Word is Write on Facebook & Instagram; a platform that hosts open mics, slams & workshops almost every day of the week. Marissa is a founding member of the worldwide women’s poetry group, Tesoro. 

Marissa has hosted a live poetry show at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in Manhattan, NYC, and performed at the NYC Poetry Festival. She has been a featured reader at multiple local and international events. Her work ranges from social justice issues and mental health, to humorous parody pieces, to sensual erotica. 

Read or Green Books (RGB) has published 67 books, over 225 people, and almost 800,000 words over the past four years. RGB recently hosted the 2024 NM Poetry Summit with plans already in place for 2025! RGB books have been nominated for many book awards, including a Pulitzer Prize, and the book "Do I Look African Enough?" by Kimberly KMA Anderson, won the Best Indie Book Award for Poetry in 2022. Marissa has been included in multiple local and international poetry anthologies, magazines, and journals. She has three books of poetry available for purchase through Read or Green Books. Her motto is, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” -African Proverb. 

Marissa has been involved in the film scene in New Mexico and has written screenplays, multiple novels of fiction, a memoir, children's books, poetry, prose, and recently embarked on erotica. Her dream was to see her work published, but the problem was finding one publishing house to manage the assortment of genres and not be exploited financially. Not one around? She decided to take the leap and founded Read or Green Books. With the help of fellow poets who were also seeking publication for their books, the inaugural launch of the intrepid "Original Poets" moved this publishing house into reality. 

It has become our mission to focus on debut authors who have been stigmatized, discriminated against, overlooked, minimized, abused, mistreated, and forgotten.

Facebook: Marissa Prada, Read or Green Books, The Word is Write 

Instagram: @PoetryandsomePrada, @ReadorGreenBooks, @TheWordisWrite 

YouTube: Read or Green Books, The Word is Write

We are dedicated to providing a brave space for authors to unite and share their work free of discrimination, judgement, exploitation or fear.  You MAY NOT find trigger warnings for some content in the literature and/or events.