Maya Afilalo lives in Philadelphia. The recipient of the 2022 James Hurst Prize for Fiction, her stories and essays appear or are forthcoming in New Ohio Review, Bayou Magazine, The /tƐmz/ Review, and elsewhere. She is an assistant editor for Passengers Journal. Maya holds a BA in English from the University of Pennsylvania and an MFA in Fiction from North Carolina State University.

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Her writing has earned her residencies with Sundress Publications, the Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities, and the Clearman Cottage Writers Residency sponsored by the Kelly Writers House, and she was a 2023 Tin House Workshop participant. She has shared her work at readings including Foglifter's 2021 Queer Home Cookout Tour, with Mónica Gomery, Miah Jeffra, noor, Baruch Porras-Hernandez, Jason Villemez, and Carmen Maria Machado.

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Maya is currently working on a short story collection and a coming-of-age novel, the latter of which was a Top 10 Finalist in Voyage Journal's 2022 Novel Excerpt Contest. You can find her @m_afil on Twitter and @mafilalo on Instagram and Bluesky.