She was born in Rakevo village, northwest Bulgaria and was educated at a Lycée français in Vratsa, at the State Institute of Library Studies in Sofia and at the Slavic philology department of Sofia University, St. Kliment Ohridski.
In 1990, she helped found the first independent literary journal in Bulgaria Ah, Maria and continued on as part of its editorial team.
[1] Mihaylova has translated more than 30 books into Bulgarian, both poetry and prose, by authors such as Georges Bataille, Jean Genet, Vénus Khoury-Ghata, Sylvie Germain and Alexis Jenni; she has also published anthologies of Lithuanian and Latvian poetry.
She has published five books of her own poems in Bulgarian and her poems have been published in translation in 13 European languages, as well as in Turkish, Arabic, Chinese and Japanese.
[1] Her book Ciel à Perdre, written in French, received the Prix Guillaume Apollinaire in 2014.