Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff

Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff
Performing at DucKon 2008
Born	1954 California
Occupation	writer/musician
Nationality	US
Genre	science fiction/fantasy
Website
www.mysticfig.com

Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff (born 1954 in California and raised in Nebraska, residing near San Jose, California is a versatile author and performer, best known for her science fiction and fantasy works. Bohnhoff also writes magic realism, nonfiction, and has written and performed music professionally or semi-professionally since 1979 — generally folk or rock music, and since the 1990s more specifically filk and parody music styles — with her husband, Jeff Bohnhoff.

Bohnhoff, mother of three, has been married since 1981 to Jeff Bohnhoff. The couple and their children are members of the Bahá'í Faith. She began her interest in science fiction after watching The Day the Earth Stood Still as a child. Her mother was a singer and music was a predominant passion over writing, through her high school and college days.

Over a decade after her high school experience of being pressured to choose between practical subjects and the arts of music and writing, Bohnhoff wrote an autobiographical essay "But My Mother Was a Singer" in which she chronicles her struggle with the question and argues that though the Bahá'í teachings include an emphasis on the importance of the arts and earning a livelihood by one's calling, "… using our cultural criteria, the arts may seem to have little to do with survival. But they have a tremendous amount to do with 'carrying forward an ever advancing civilization'." Eventually she held a day job as an Instructional Designer and Manager for Kelly Services for some years but bosses would either "urge me to give up music" or told her "You don't belong here" while co-workers would misunderstand the life of the artist — "'If you are any good, what are you doing working here?'" "Minor setbacks", Bohnhoff continues, "in my 'career' provided intensely embarrassing situations at work."