Yoana Stoyanova was born in 1982 in Pomorie, a small seaside town in Bulgaria. She has a BA in Indian Studies and an MA in translation and editing from Sofia University. She has also studied in India and Finland. Stoyanova has been a professional translator since 2008. Some of her published translations in Bulgarian include books by the Dalai Lama, Hanan al-Shaykh, and Amy Wallace.