Maruša Krese was born in 1947 in Ljubljana. She was a writer, journalist, humanitarian worker and reporter. She studied literature, art history and psychotherapy in Ljubljana, London, and Utrecht. From 1975 to 1989 she worked as a psychotherapist in Ljubljana, London and Tübingen. From 1990 to 1991 she was the Berlin correspondent for Slovenian radio. She was a member of PEN Center, Germany since 1998. She was the author of 7 collections of poetry and 2 collection of short stories. In 1997 she received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for her humanitarian efforts in the Bosnian war. In 2005 she received a grant from the city of Graz (City-Writer of Graz).

In 2012 Krese was the writer in residence with Translators' House Wales, during which she worked with Menna Wyn of Bangor University on a translation of Krese's Vsi Moji Božiči (Mladinska knjiga Založba, 2006; All My Christmases) into Welsh. She also collaborated with creative writing students at the University who translated her work into Welsh as an exercise to develop their creative writing skills.

Krese passed away on January 7, 2013.