· 2020
Named one of the Best Poetry Books of 2021 by The Guardian Longlisted for the 2021 National Translation Award in Poetry. Picked for Kirkus Reviews’ Best Fiction in Translation of 2020. Named a Book of the Year by NPR, Vox, and The New Statesman. Picked for Loyalty Books’ Holiday List. A new, feminist translation of Beowulf by the author of the much-buzzed-about novel The Mere Wife "Brash and belligerent, lunatic and invigorating, with passages of sublime poetry punctuated by obscenities and social-media shorthand." —Ruth Franklin, The New Yorker "The author of the crazy-cool Beowulf-inspired novel The Mere Wife tackles the Old English epic poem with a fierce new feminist translation that radically recontextualizes the tale." —Barbara VanDenburgh, USA Today Nearly twenty years after Seamus Heaney’s translation of Beowulf—and fifty years after the translation that continues to torment high-school students around the world—there is a radical new verse translation of the epic poem by Maria Dahvana Headley, which brings to light elements that have never before been translated into English, recontextualizing the binary narrative of monsters and heroes into a tale in which the two categories often entwine, justice is rarely served, and dragons live among us. A man seeks to prove himself as a hero. A monster seeks silence in his territory. A warrior seeks to avenge her murdered son. A dragon ends it all. The familiar elements of the epic poem are seen with a novelist’s eye toward gender, genre, and history—Beowulf has always been a tale of entitlement and encroachment, powerful men seeking to become more powerful, and one woman seeking justice for her child, but this version brings new context to an old story. While crafting her contemporary adaptation of Beowulf, Headley unearthed significant shifts lost over centuries of translation.
· 2018
The New York Times– bestselling author presents a modern retelling of Beowulf as two suburban moms fight to protect those they love. To its distinguished residents, the suburban enclave of Herot Hall is a paradise. Picket fences and meticulous homes line the streets, and the community is entirely self-sustaining. But for those who live along Herot Hall's periphery, the subdivision is a fortress guarded by an intense network of gates, surveillance cameras, and motion-activated lights. As wife of the heir to Herot Hall, Willa Herot enjoys a languid life of mommy groups, cocktail hours, and dinner parties—always with her son Dylan in tow. Meanwhile, in a cave outside town lives Gren, short for Grendel, and his mother, Dana, a former soldier who gave birth as if by chance. Dana didn't want Gren, didn't plan Gren, and doesn't know how she got Gren. But when she returned from war, there he was. Then Gren unwittingly ventures into Herot Hall. And when runs off with Dylan, Dana's and Willa's worlds collide.
· 2016
The stunning sequel to Maria Dahvana Headley’s bestselling, critically acclaimed Magonia tells the story of one girl who must make an impossible choice between two families, two homes—and two versions of herself. Aza Ray is back on earth. Her boyfriend, Jason, is overjoyed. Her family is healed. She’s living a normal life, or as normal as it can be if you’ve spent the past year dying, waking up on a sky ship, and discovering that your song can change the world. As in, not normal. Part of Aza still yearns for the clouds, no matter how much she loves the people on the ground. When Jason’s paranoia over Aza’s safety causes him to make a terrible mistake, Aza finds herself a fugitive in Magonia, tasked with opposing her radical, bloodthirsty, recently escaped mother, Zal Quel, and her singing partner, Dai. She must travel to the edge of the world in search of a legendary weapon, the Flock, in a journey through fire and identity that will transform her forever. Told in Maria Headley’s trademark John Green–meets–Neil Gaiman style, Aerie is sure to satisfy the many readers who can’t wait to return to the spellbinding world of Magonia.
· 2015
“Magonia is magical. A high-?ying, refresing, and literally out-of-the-blue fantasy with great characters, emotional depth, and a unique fantasy world that I never saw coming.”—Victoria Aveyard, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Red Queen Aza Ray is drowning in thin air. Since she was a baby, Aza has suffered from a mysterious lung disease that makes it ever harder for her to breathe, to speak—to live. So when Aza catches a glimpse of a ship in the sky, her family chalks it up to a cruel side effect of her medication. But Aza doesn’t think this is a hallucination. She can hear someone on the ship calling her name. Only her best friend, Jason, listens. Jason, who’s always been there. Jason, for whom she might have more-than-friendly feelings. But before Aza can consider that thrilling idea, something goes terribly wrong. Aza is lost to our world—and found by another. Magonia. Above the clouds, in a land of trading ships, Aza is not the weak and dying thing she was. In Magonia, she can breathe for the first time—better, she has immense power. As she navigates her new life, she discovers that war is coming. Magonia and Earth are on the cusp of a reckoning, and in Aza’s hands lies the fate of the whole of humanity—including the boy who loves her. Where do her loyalties lie? “Maria Davana Headley is a firecracker: she’s whip smart with a heart, and she writes like a dream.” Neil Gaiman, bestselling author of The Graveyard Book and Coraline
· 2011
In this stunningly original debut, go beyond the legend of Queen Cleopatra and discover a passion steeped in the bloodlust of vampires… The year is 30 BC. A messenger delivers word to Queen Cleopatra that her beloved husband, Antony, has died at his own hand. Desperate to save her kingdom, Cleopatra strikes a mortal bargain in exchange for Antony’s soul, transforming her into an immortal—a vampire with superhuman strength and an insatiable hunger for blood. Leaving a trail of fiery retribution, Cleopatra journeys from the tombs of Egypt to the ancient underworld in order to meet her husband again. But to resurrect him, Cleopatra will need to challenge mythical beings with power beyond comprehension—risking the fate of both this world and the next for a love that will not die…
· 2020
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Mere Wife comes Maria Dahvana Headley's Tor.com Original short story "The Girlfriend's Guide to Gods" Gods won’t save you. Gods will break you. Nevertheless, you will persist. And become anew. This is the first myth: that your boyfriend from when you were fifteen will come and get you out of hell. He might come, but he won’t get you. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
· 2007
The "poignant and hilarious" (Newsday) story of one woman's twelve months of dating anyone -- absolutely anyone -- who asked her out At some point every woman who's single (and not by choice) wonders whether she's not somehow responsible for her predicament. Is she too choosy? Should she have given that guy with the combover and the mother issues a shot? Maybe three full feet isnt too much of a height difference . . .? Maria Dahvana Headley had been there, cherry-picking the men shed dated based on a variety of criteria, and clearly it wasnt getting her anywhere. The Year of Yes is the hilarious and hopeful account of Headley's quest to find a man she could stand (for longer than a couple of hours). Frustrated by her own ineffective taste, she resolved to leave her love life up to fate, dating anyone who asked her: homeless men, a millionaire, several non-English speakers, a mime, and even two women. And finally, one man whose baggage would have disqualified him in any other year . . . but this was the Year of Yes, when Headley would finally discover what was really important.
· 2015
Some Gods of El Paso by Maria Dahvana Headley is a short fantasy story of a couple on the run from the law for stealing and illegally trading in strong emotions in 1920s US. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
· 2017
The January/February 2017 issue of the Hugo Award winning Uncanny Magazine. Featuring new fiction by Sam J. Miller, A. Merc Rustad, Cassandra Khaw, Maria Dahvana Headley, Theodora Goss, and Tansy Rayner Roberts, reprinted fiction by Ann Leckie, essays by Mark Oshiro, Natalie Luhrs, Delilah S. Dawson, and Angel Cruz, poetry by Carlos Hernandez, Nin Harris, and Nicasio Andres Reed, interviews with A. Merc Rustad and Maria Dahvana Headley by Julia Rios, a cover by John Picacio, and an editorial by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas.
· 2014
Nebula Award-nominated author Maria Dahvana Headley has always loved Damon Runyon's stylized faux-reporting on New York City. This is her version of a Runyon tale—this one dealing with the architectural guys and dolls of New York City—and a valentine to all the beautiful buildings she knows. It's Valentine's Day, 1938, and the Chrysler Building's tired of waiting on the corner of Forty-second and Lex for a certain edifice to notice her. Here's the story of what might happen if two of New York's greatest creations met on a day built for romance. This short story was acquired and edited by editor Liz Gorinsky. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.