Montalvo "Monte" Marcos was born on October 20, 1994, to Peter and Giselle Marcos and older brother, William, of Metairie, Louisiana.
Peter wanted to name Monte "Cuthbert," Faulkner's middle name, but Giselle prevailed, and the baby was named Montalvo after her paternal grandfather. The couple agreed on the nickname "Monte."
Peter was a freelance writer and Faulkner enthusiast, and Giselle worked as a massage therapist. After Monte was born, Giselle accepted a teaching position in the Massage Therapy department at Blue Cliff College to support the family by providing reliable income and health benefits.
The Marcoses were a close-knit family and enjoyed spending quiet evenings at home together. Peter was an excellent cook and cherished preparing meals for his wife and sons. Giselle was athletic, and she and the boys would spend time outside playing basketball or soccer or tossing a baseball until dinner was ready.
Giselle and the boys made up stories as they played. She would start with "Once upon a time" and toss the ball to one of the boys who added to the story and then tossed the ball to his brother who added to the story. Peter delighted in hearing these wonderful and outrageous tales being created.
Monte showed writing talent when he was quite young, creating grand stories of adventure with superb plot and character development. Peter taught both of his sons to read at an early age, and by the time Monte was in the sixth grade, he was reading at a much higher grade level.
Peter shared his passion for Faulkner with his son, and Monte embraced it, developing a passion of his own. During Monte's high school years after William had gone off to be a sports writer, Monte and Peter would spend hours together in the same room, each writing his own work, bouncing ideas off one another.
Monte realized his dream of attending Ole Miss to pursue all things Faulkner, and after graduating magna cum laude with a B.A. in English, he was accepted to the Master's program at Ole Miss. Monte was mentored by Associate Professor Doug Reed and served as Doug's teaching assistant. Monte's goal is to earn a Ph.D. in English.
A prolific writer, Monte has won cash awards from various writing contests for his fictional short stories and poetry, including the Barry Hannah Prize for Fiction. Two of Monte's fictional short stories were published in online magazines, and he plans to self-publish a collection of poems written by himself and Peter.
