Maria Smilios is the author of The Black Angels: The Untold Story of the Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis forthcoming on September 19, 2023.

A native of New York City, Maria holds a Masters of Arts from Boston University in Religion & Literature where she was a Henry Luce Scholar and a Presidential Scholar. She also taught Essay and Research writing in the university’s writing program.

In 2007, she left Boston and moved back to New York City to teach at an all-girls high school. There she created and ran an intensive summer writing program for teens.

Maria formerly worked as a development editor in the Biomedical Sciences editing books in lung diseases, pediatric and breast cancer, neurology, and ocular diseases. It was during this time when she read a line in a book that led her to discover the story of the Black Angels.

Through writing the book, she has become in involved in advocating for affordable and accessible TB drugs in TB heavy countries, working with and supporting organizations such as EndTB and Partners in Health.

In the past, she has written for The Guardian, American Nurse, Narratively, The Rumpus, Dame Magazine, and The Forward among others.

The Black Angels is her first book.