About
Francisco Martínezcuello is a writer and journalist whose work spans playwriting, fiction, essays, investigative reporting, science writing and climate journalism. He graduated from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism in 2022, where he focused on narrative writing.
After Berkeley, Martínezcuello worked as a CalTrout Ecosystem Fellow with the Public Policy Institute of California before becoming a news reporting fellow at KYUK in Bethel, Alaska, where he produced daily newscasts and reported across rural Southwest Alaska. He later reported for the Chilkat Valley News in Haines before spending two years as a California Local News Fellow at The Trinity Journal in Weaverville. His reporting focused on water, wildfire, public lands, government and rural communities across Northern California. In November 2026, he joins the Plumas Sun as its Disaster Recovery Reporter in Greenville, covering communities rebuilding after the 2021 Dixie Fire.
His literary work has appeared in Hippocampus Magazine, The Line Literary Review, Wrath-Bearing Tree, Twisted Tongue Press, BULL, Hobart, Split Lip, The War Horse, River Teeth: Beautiful Things, Collateral Journal, and other publications. He has been a Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Fellow, an Into the Fire writing retreat scholarship recipient, and a participant in the Writers Guild Foundation Veterans Writing Project, and the La Jolla Playhouse's Veterans Playwriting Workshop.
His full-length play Salsa Night received the 2023 Lieutenant William Broyles Award for dramatic work dealing with U.S. Marine Corps heritage or Marine Corps life. In July 2025, the play received a reading at The Players in New York through Savage Wonder Art Center, directed by Eric Tucker.
Across genres, his work returns to war, memory, identity, place and the ways people reach for connection.
Photo: Timbre Beck
Selected Recognition
Journalism
2025 CNPA · 5TH PLACE, ENVIRONMENT
Study: Climate change fueling wildfire smoke deaths
The Trinity Journal · June 11, 2025
2025 CNPA · 5TH PLACE, IMMIGRATION
105-year journey through America's changing welcome
The Trinity Journal · October 29, 2025
2024 PMJA · 2ND PLACE, USE OF SOUND
New 'Fire Lab' helps train Bethel firefighters to respond to blazes
KYUK · December 6, 2023
Writing & Playwriting
2023 LIEUTENANT WILLIAM BROYLES AWARD
Salsa Night
Full-length play
VIRGINIA CENTER FOR THE CREATIVE ARTS
Fellowship
Creative writing residency
INTO THE FIRE WRITING RETREAT
Scholarship recipient
Creative writing retreat
RECRUITERS & EDITORS