Maria Ostrowski

Maria Ostrowski is an award-winning writer of atmospheric fiction.

Her manuscript, THE BONES OF HOPE won two Claymore awards at Killer Nashville (Best Supernatural, 1st Runner Up for Best Unpublished Manuscript), was a 2024 Launch Pad Prose finalist, was just named a 2025 semifinalist for ScreenCraft’s Cinematic Prose Competition, and recently hit #1 on Coverfly’s Red List for top manuscripts.

THE BONES OF HOPE is an Odyssey-inspired Gothic about three women—a mechanical engineer, a maritime pilot, and a shipwreck survivor. Bound by blood and magic, yet separated by a century, they embark on a mystical journey of reclamation to set each other free from the chains of a haunting past.

In 2019, her manuscript, Yet From Those Flames No Light, was a finalist for The Daphne du Maurier Award for excellence in mystery and suspense.

Her creative nonfiction and poetry appears in Ovunque Siamo, Poetica Review, HerStry, 34th Parallel Magazine, and The Book Smuggler’s Den, as well as the anthologies, (HER)oics: Women’s lived experiences during the coronavirus pandemic and Letting Go: An Anthology of Attempts. https://bio.site/mariaostrowski

While studying for her degree in English from the University of Connecticut, she interned at Curbstone Press and volunteered as a mentor for the Connecticut Youth Poetry Slam Team.   

After taking an independent fiction tutorial through NYU, she attended The Peripatetic Writers Workshops in Woodstock, NY and Kent, England. Pre-pandemic, Maria loved teaching poetry to kids through The Bushnell’s Partners in Arts and Education Program.

Follow her writing life on Instagram: @the_roughdraft