Maya C. Popa is a Romanian-American poet and editor born in Romania and raised in New York. Her debut collection, Wound Is the Origin of Wonder (W.W. Norton, 2022), meditates on cosmology, biology, mortality, and wonder in the face of loss. Her poems appear in The New Yorker, Poetry, and Best American Poetry. She holds degrees from King's College London and New York University and serves as the poetry reviews editor at Publishers Weekly. Her second collection, Social Contract (W.W. Norton, 2025), extends her exploration of science, civic life, and lyric perception. Her work has been recognized with support from the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference and the Poetry Foundation.