Maria Gray is a poet, writer, and editor from Portland, Oregon, currently living in Brooklyn, New York. Her work appears in Best New Poets, ONLY POEMS, Foglifter, SPACE Gallery’s 2024 Poetry Hotline, and more. She was longlisted for ONLY POEMS’ Poet of the Year Prize in both 2024 and 2025, and she has received additional honors from The Adroit Journal, poetry.onl, and Nine Syllables Press, among others. Her debut chapbook, Science Before Fiction, is forthcoming from Game Over Books in fall 2026.

She received her BA in English with a concentration in creative writing from Bates College, where she was honored with the Alice Jane Dinsmore Wandke Award and John Tagliabue Prize for Creative Writing. She is pursuing her MFA in creative writing at Hunter College as a Sainsbury Fellow; she also reads poetry for Hunter’s The Skybridge Review. Professional and editorial experience includes the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers’ National Student Poets Program, New York Public Library, New York University’s Washington Square Review, COUNTERCLOCK Journal, Snaggletooth Magazine, Black Lawrence Press, and Sunhouse Literary, among others.

preorder Science Before Fiction <3
Magazine cover featuring an illustrated romantic scene of two men in a close embrace, with pink and orange background and wearing cowboy hats. The magazine title is "FOGLIFTER" in bold pink letters.
Cover of Best New Poets 2022, featuring a black and white portrait of Emily Dickinson with short, dark hair, surrounded by red and pink paint splatters and text naming the guest editor (Paula Bohince) and series editor (Jeb Livingood).
SICK magazine issue 7 cover, decorated with white and red floral patterns, against a yellow background, on a blue textured surface.
ONLY POEMS in decorative white text, with a fountain pen nib icon beneath, on a blue background.