Before his debut novel, Bird Box, was published by ECCO/HarperCollins, Malerman had written fourteen manuscripts, never having shopped one of them. Bird Box was published in the United Kingdom and United States in 2014 to much critical acclaim. As the singer/songwriter of the Detroit rock band The High Strung, Malerman toured the country for six years, playing approximately 250 shows a year. Malerman wrote many of the rough drafts for these novels in the passenger seat between cities on tour. He says this about those days: "I never saw the books with dollar signs in my eyes. It was no hobby, that’s for sure, it was the real thing and always has been, but I was happy, then, simply writing, and while I blindly assumed they'd be published one day, I had no idea how something like that occurred." When a friend from high school, Dave Simmer, who had worked with authors and properties in Hollywood, asked Malerman's permission to send one of his books to some people he knew in the publishing industry. Malerman sent Goblin, a collection of novellas that take place in the titular city of Goblin. Malerman subsequently spoke with an agent and editors. He says this of the part Simmer played in his career: “There were two things at play at that point in time; one, Dave was a ghostly benefactor, golden-hearted and smart, descending from the sky to help me. And two, what may sound like luck couldn't have become good fortune if I wasn't armed with a dozen novels to talk shop with." For many of Malerman's books, he has done live readings with a theatrical bent, Bird Box, Black Mad Wheel, and Goblin among them. "Our readings are more than just me at a podium," Malerman says. “Steve Greene will be doing live music while other people act out the scene I'm reading. It's more than an excerpt." A limited edition of Goblin was published on Halloween in 2017, by Earthling Publications. The song "The Luck You Got" from The High Strung album Moxie Bravo is featured as the theme song to the US version of the show Shameless. Black Mad Wheel was published in May 2017. In October 2017, Malerman was the subject of a documentary, Quilt of Delirium, directed by Scott Allen. Del Rey Books purchased the rights to Unbury Carol, a fantastic horror-western published in April 2018. Cemetery Dance is set to publish a hardcover limited edition of On This, the Day of the Pig in October 2018. Bird Box was adapted into a post-apocalypticfilm of the same name. It was directed by Susanne Bier and written by Eric Heisserer, stars Sandra Bullock, Trevante Rhodes, and John Malkovich, and was released on December 21, 2018 by Netflix.
Personal life
Malerman lives in Ferndale, Michigan with his fiancée, artist/musician, Allison Laakko.
