Maria Galina was born in Kalinin (now the city of Tver) in 1958. She started publishing fiction in the 1990s under the pen name Maxim Golitsyn. She has since published novels under her own name as well. Two of her novels, Little Boondock and Mole-Crickets, were nominated for the Big Book Award in 2009 and 2012. She is also a prize-winning poet and literary critic, and regular contributor to the literary journal Novyi Mir.