Maria Dahvana Headley

Maria Dahvana Headley is the New York Times–bestselling author of seven books including The Mere Wife, a contemporary adaptation of Beowulf, named by the Washington Post as one of its Notable Works of Fiction in 2018. Her new translation of Beowulf is due from FSG in August 2020. Headley’s short fiction has been nominated for the Nebula, Shirley Jackson, Tiptree, and World Fantasy Awards and has been anthologized in many year’s bests; a collection will appear from FSG in the near future. Her essays on politics, propaganda, and mythology have been published in the New York Times, Daily Beast, Harvard’s Nieman Storyboard, and elsewhere.  Her work has been supported by The MacDowell Colony, Arte Studio Ginestrelle, and the Sundance Institute’s Theatre Lab, among other organizations. She grew up in the high desert of Idaho on a survivalist sled dog ranch, where she spent summers plucking the winter coat from her father’s wolf.