Biography

Margot Douaihy (b. Scranton, PA) lives and works in Northampton, MA. She earned a BA in Writing from the University of Pittsburgh and a PhD in Creative Writing from Lancaster University.

Douaihy is the author of the lyrical crime novel SCORCHED GRACE (Gillian Flynn Books), which was named a Best Crime Novel of 2023 by The New York Times, The Guardian, Apple Books, CrimeReads, Barnes & Noble, & Novel Suspects, among others. The second book in the Sister Holiday Mystery series, BLESSED WATER, was named a Best Crime Novel of 2024 by the New York Times and Scribd/Everand, as well as a Feminist Book Club Favorite of the Year, and a Summer Crime & Suspense Pick by NPR’s Fresh Air. Margot is also the author of Bandit/Queen: The Runaway Story of Belle Starr, a true-crime poetry project, and Scranton Lace, a documentary poetry collection about the life and death of a lace factory.

A Co-Editor of the Cambridge University Press Elements in Crime Narrative Series and Multimodal/Multimedia Section Editor of Journal of Creative Writing Studies (RIT ScholarWorks), Douaihy’s work has been featured or reviewed in Colorado Review, The Florida Review, North American Review, PBS NewsHour, Mystery Tribune, Portland Review, Vanity Fair, Vulture, and others.

Douaihy serves as an Assistant Professor with Emerson College.

Honors include the Saints & Sinners LGBTQ+ Festival Emerging Writer Award (2024); Pinckley Prize for Crime Fiction, Best Debut Mystery (2023); Left Coast Crime Best Debut Mystery Nominee (2023); Best Author by Boston Magazine (2023); The F. Lamott Belin Arts Scholarship for Virtual Reality Poetry (2023); Massachusetts Book Award Longlist (2023); New England Book Award Finalist (2023), Mass Cultural Council Artist Fellowship (2022), The Florida Review Humboldt Poetry Prize Runner-Up (2021), Aesthetica Magazine Creative Writing Award Finalist (2021), Ernest Hemingway Foundation Hemingway Shorts Finalist (2021), and Lambda Literary Award Poetry Finalist (2015).

A founding member of the Creative Writing Studies Organization and an active member of the Association of Writers & Writing Programs, Queer Crime Writers, and Radius of Arab American Writers (RAWI), Douaihy is represented by United Agents, Laura Macdougall (literary) and Jennifer Thomas (screen).