Mona Awad is a Canadian novelist and short story writer known for her darkly comic fiction. Bunny (2019) and 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl (2016) earned her the Amazon Best First Novel Award and a Goodreads Choice Award for Best Horror.
Mona Awad was born on 22 August 1978 in Montreal, Quebec. She moved to Mississauga, Ontario, at 13.
Awad pursued higher education in literature. She received a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from York University in 2004. She continued her studies with a Master's at the University of Edinburgh. Awad received an MFA in Fiction from Brown University and a PhD in Creative Writing and English Literature from the University of Denver. She has been an Assistant Professor in the Creative Writing Program at Syracuse University since 2020.
Her literary career began with her debut novel, 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl (2016). The novel humorously explores a woman's struggle with body image and self-perception. It won the Amazon Best First Novel Award and the Colorado Book Award. It was also shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Arab American Book Award and received critical acclaim.
Awad's second novel, Bunny (2019), is set in a prestigious writing programme in New England. It follows Samantha Heather Mackey as she becomes involved with a clique of students known as the Bunnies.
Bunny was a finalist for the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Horror and the New England Book Award. It also won the Ladies of Horror Fiction Award for Best Novel. This success led to it being optioned for a film adaptation by Bad Robot Productions.
In 2021, Awad published her third novel, All's Well. It focuses on a theatre professor suffering from chronic pain who is determined to stage a Shakespeare play. It was longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award and a finalist for the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Horror.
Her latest work, Rouge (2023), explores gothic and surreal themes. It tells the story of Belle, a dress shop assistant who is drawn into the world of a luxurious, cult-like spa after the mysterious death of her mother. The novel explores themes of beauty, envy and the complex love between mothers and daughters. With elements of Snow White and Eyes Wide Shut, Rouge critiques the dark side of the beauty industry and society's obsession with appearance and mortality.
Mona Awad's writing has appeared in The New York Times, Vogue and McSweeney's.
Mona Awad lives in Boston.
Photo credit: monaawadauthor.com
