Maria Semenovna Galina was born in Kalinin (Tver) in 1958. Candidate of Science in Biology, she participated in expeditions, she worked at the Bergen University, Norway. Maria Galina has lived in Moscow since 1987.

Since 1995 Maria Galina has been a professional writer. She made her debut as a science fiction author with the novel Time of the Defeated in 1997 published under the pen name of Maxim Golitsyn.

She is the author of a number of articles published in The Literary Newspaper, The New World, Banner, etc.

Maria Galina is a member of the Moscow Union of Writers, was repeatedly a member of jury of genre awards, and worked in the judging panel of the Big Book award. She translated prose, mostly that by English-speaking authors, including Stephen King, Jack Vance, Edwin Charles Tubb, Clive Barker, and Peter Straub and verses by Ukrainian poets.

Maria Galina is the winner of the Anthology award (2006) of the New World Magazine for highest achievements in modern Russian poetry, the Big award Moscow Account award for the best poetic book of 2006 (NoEarth), award of the international poetic festival Kiev Monasteries (2012), the Special award Moscow Account for the best poetic book of 2014 (All about Lisa).

Prose by Maria Galina has been translated into the Italian, English and Polish languages and her poems are available in Russian and English.