Max Martínez attributed his writing style to his family and neighbors in Gonzalez County, where he was born and raised.

      "Everyone I know is a talker and a skilled story teller," Martínez once said.  "The stories told don't matter nearly as much as the way they are told."

      Martínez quit school after failing the seventh grade for excessive absences and went to work as a farm laborer.  But the backbreaking work from sunup to sundown was not for him.  He joined the U.S. Navy and quickly advanced through the ranks over the next nine years.

Following his discharge, Martínez enrolled at St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas, where he received undergraduate degree in English. He obtained his Master’s in Comparative Literature from East Texas State University in 1973 and his Ph.D. in Literature from the University of Denver.

Martínez died at the age of 58 on November 25, 2001. He is the author of three novels, Layover (Arte Público Press, 1997), White Leg (Arte Público Press, 1996) and Schoolland (Arte Público Press, 1988), and two collections of stories, The Adventures of the Chicano Kid (Arte Público Press, 1982) and A Red Bikini Dream (Arte Público Press, 1989).