Mona Awad

Mona Awad is a Canadian novelist and short-story writer.[1] Her debut book, 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl, a novel (structured using linked short stories) about a woman's lifelong struggle with body image issues,[2] won the Amazon.ca First Novel Award[3] and was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2016.[4] She was inspired to write the book because of her own experiences growing up and struggling with her own body image.[5] In the Los Angeles Times, Awad has been quoted as saying, she "made [music] playlists for every chapter" in 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl because it helped her "immerse" herself in the story, helping her to better "access it." [6]

Born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, she spent her teen years in Mississauga, Ontario,[1] then studied English literature at York University and went on to earn a masters in English at the University of Edinburgh, an MFA at Brown University,[1] and a PhD at the University of Denver.[7] Her short fiction and non-fiction writing has been published in magazines including McSweeney's, The Walrus, Joyland, Post Road, St. Petersburg Review, and Maisonneuve. When Awad began writing as a columnist for Maisonneuve, she used the pseudonym Veronica Tartley.

Awad desires for her stories to provide readers with "a sense of connection" so that "people [may] feel less alone."[8]

In 2017, Awad's short story Woman Causes Avalanche[9] was published by the L.A. Review of Books.

Her next novel, Bunny, was published in June, 2019, by Viking Press.[10]

She has lived in the US since 2009, currently in Boston.