Maria Dahvana Headley

Maria Dahvana Headley is the New York Times-bestselling author of eight books, most recently Beowulf: A New Translation, which came out in August, 2020. Her latest novel, The Mere Wife, an adaptation of the Beowulf poem set in suburban America, was named by the Washington Post as one of its Notable Works of Fiction in 2018.

She has written for young adults and adults in a variety of genres and forms. In 2013 she co-edited Unnatural Creatures with Neil Gaiman, an anthology of young adult monster stories. Headley’s short fiction has been shortlisted for the Nebula, Shirley Jackson, Tiptree, and World Fantasy Awards, and for the 2020 Joyce Carol Oates Prize. Her essays on gender, chronic illness, politics, propaganda, and mythology have been published and covered in The New York Times, The 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’s taught in the master’s program in creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College, and delivered masterclasses and lectures at Oxford University, Dartmouth, Northwestern, Wesleyan Nebraska, Newman University, Stanford, UCSD, and Texas A & M. She was also the McNeely Creative Writer-in-Residence at St. John’s University/The College of St. Benedict in Minnesota in February 2021. 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.

Represented by Stephanie Cabot.