Born in 1972.

Maria Stepanova is a poet, essayist, journalist, an author of ten poetry collections and two books of essays and a recipient of several Russian and international literary awards (including the prestigious Andrey Bely Prize and Joseph Brodsky Fellowship). Her poems have been translated into numerous languages including English, Italian, German, French, Hebrew. She took part in a number of Russian and international literary festivals and programs focusing on modern literature. Her current project “In memory of memory” — a book-length study in the field of cultural history — was researched during a guest fellowship at the IWM (Institute of Human Studies, Vienna).

2007–2012 — Editor-in-chief of an independent online journal OpenSpace.ru, Russia's main daily online edition covering cultural issues. Later she reconfigured it as the crowd-sourced journal Colta.ru.

Since 2012 — Editor-in-chief of Colta.ru.

Lives in Moscow.