Rita Malie grew up in Youngstown, Ohio—a steel mill town. She received a B.S. in nursing graduating with honors from Youngstown State University, and completed an executive MBA program from Baldwin Wallace College in Berea, Ohio. She worked in the health care field for over thirty years and retired from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida in 2002. Rita’s writing career began in high school after having a poem published in Songs of Youth.

Goodbye America received four first place awards: 2003 Royal Palm Awards for Best Children’s Unpublished Non-fiction and Best Family Saga; 2005 (POW) Promoting Outstanding Writers Award for Best Unpublished Childrens/Youth Non-fiction; 2008 POW Historical Nonfiction; 2008 POW published Historical/Nonfiction. Goodbye America was released in April, 2007 and was accepted for display and sale in the Ellis Island Immigration Museum Aramark Gift Shop in New York Harbor.

Rita and her husband, Nicholas, have two grown children and two incredible granddaughters. They all make their home in Florida. She is an active member of the Florida Writers Association, Promoting Outstanding Writers (POW), and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.