Maria Magdalene Tatar (born May 13, 1945)[1] is an American academic whose expertise lies in children's literature, German literature, and folklore.

[4][5] She is the John L. Loeb Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures, and Chair of the Committee on Degrees in Folklore and Mythology at Harvard University.

[5] [6] Maria Tatar was born in Pressath, Germany.

[1] Her family emigrated from Hungary to the United States in the 1950s when she was a child.

[3] Tatar earned an undergraduate degree from Denison University and a doctoral degree from Princeton University.