Maria Kaaren Takolander was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1973 to Finnish parents.

Her forthcoming novel The End of Romance was completed with the assistance of an Australia Council 'New Work' grant, a Neilma Sidney Travel Fund award, an Arteles Creative Centre residency, and an Australian Institute of Marine Science residency. It is due for release with Text Publishing in July 2026.

Maria is also the author of The Double and Other Stories (Text 2013), which was funded by an Australia Council ‘New Work’ grant, was a finalist for the Melbourne Prize for Literature’s ‘Best Writing Award’, and was named a best book of 2013 by The Australian and other forums. She was the inaugural winner of the Australian Book Review short story prize.

Maria has published four books of poems: Trigger Warning (UQP 2021), which won the 2022 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award and was shortlisted for the 2022 Australian Literature Society Gold Medal; The End of the World (Giramondo 2014), which was named one of the best books of the year by Australian Book Review and reviewed in the Los Angeles Review of Books; Ghostly Subjects (Salt 2009), which was short-listed for a 2010 Queensland Premier’s Literary Award; and the chapbook Narcissism (Whitmore Press 2005). A program about her poetry aired on Radio National in 2015, and she has performed her poetry on ABC TV and radio as well as at numerous events, including the 2017 Medellín International Poetry Festival in Colombia.

Maria is also a public artist. Her words can be found on bronze plaques in Central Geelong and at the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria.