Svetlana Martynchik

Max Frei is the pen name of Svetlana Yuryevna Martynchik (; ) (born 1965 in Odessa, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union), a fantasy writer from Odessa, Ukraine. She writes in Russian and mostly publishes in Russia while holding Ukrainian citizenship. She permanently resides in Vilnius, Lithuania. Martynchik has collaborated many years on her books with her spouse, artist (1967–2018).

Biography Martynchik has Belarusian and German roots. She studied philology at Odessa State University, but dropped out without graduating. From 1986 she collaborated with artist Igor Styopin, whom she later married. The couple moved to Moscow, Russia, in 1993, to work at Marat Gelman's gallery. There, Svetlana started writing fantasy books.

The pen name, Max Frei, was invented by Martynchik and Styopin for their works on comic fantasy series Labyrinths of Echo . The plot follows the eponymous narrator, sir Max, as he leaves our "real" world for the phantasmagoric fantasy city of Echo. There, he becomes a member of a special service that controls the use of magic. The books are written by Martynchik, while Styopin developed the Echo universe and illustrated the books. Along with her Echo books, Frei also participated in several literary projects. She compiled Fram, a series of short story anthologies by Amphora publishing house. From 2006 to 2011, the series of books Russian Foreign Folktales was published as part of the Fram project.

The couple moved from Moscow to Vilnius, Lithuania, in 2004, out of their dislike of megalopolises. There, Max Frei wrote four parts of magic realist Tales of the Old Vilnius .