Maya Bernstein-Schalet is a writer and podcaster from Brooklyn, NY. Her writing can be found in Waxing & Waning, The Briar Cliff Review, and OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters. She is the recipient of The Briar Cliff Review’s 2023 Award for Nonfiction, the 2024 University of Arizona Creative Writing Program Bill Waller Award for Nonfiction, and a finalist for the 56th New Millennium Nonfiction Writing Awards. Her audio stories have appeared on Heritage Radio Network's weekly show Meat and Three. She has contributed research to The Marshall Project’s Next to Die investigation on capital punishment and Belly of the Beast Cuba’s investigations on interventions in Cuba. 

 

Maya graduated with Phi Beta Kappa honors from Wesleyan University, where she majored Cultural Anthropology. She is currently pursuing an MFA in Creative Nonfiction Writing at the University of Arizona. Her essays have been nominated by editors for the Best of the Net anthology and the Pushcart Prize. Her essay about Walter Benjamin and Alzheimer's was selected as a notable essay in the Best American Essays of 2024.

 

When she is not writing, Maya is admiring saguaros, reading library books, or eating home-cooked food with friends. Most likely, she is at home with her cat Sid. 

 

You can email her at mayabernsteinschalet@gmail.com or find her on Instagram and Twitter @maya__freda.