Polly Phokeev is an award-winning playwright and writer born in Russia and based in Toronto. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing through the University of British Columbia. Her critically acclaimed play How We Are, created with Mikaela Davies, holds the 2016 Safe Words New Canadian Play Award and the MyEntertainment World award for Outstanding New Work. Other writing credits include Seams (SummerWorks 2015; NOW Magazine pick for Outstanding New Play) and The Mess (with Mikaela Davies; nominated for 2017 MyEntertainment Critics’ Choice Award). Polly was honoured with the inaugural Award for a Young Canadian Playwright through the Jon Kaplan Legacy Fund in 2019. She was part of Driftwood Theatre’s inaugural Playwrights Unit, and has written short plays for The Wrecking Ball series and rapid-play response group Brave New Theatre. She’s also written for the radioplay podcast Duotang Chesterfield Mystery Theatre. As a fiction writer, Polly was awarded second place in the Toronto Star Short Story Contest for her short story Stalwart Island. Her story Long Haul to Napoli was featured as a finalist in Accenti Magazine’s Writing Contest. She was longlisted for the 2023 CBC Short Story Prize for Death of a Sparrow. Polly is currently translating and adapting Mikhail Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita with Mikaela Davies and Hailey Gillis (in collaboration with Crow’s Theatre, with support from the Stratford Festival), and writing her debut novel.