Margot.Lee Shetterly author page

Margot Lee Shetterly biography

Margot Lee Shetterly is an American non-fiction writer known for her work exploring the contributions of African-American women in science and technology. Shetterly studied at the University of Virginia, where she earned a degree in finance. After university, she worked in investment banking and media start-ups before turning to writing and research.

Shetterly is the author of Hidden Figures: The Untold Story of the African American Women Who Helped Win the Space Race, published by William Morrow in 2016. The book documents the lives and achievements of African-American female mathematicians who worked at NASA and its predecessor, NACA, during the early years of the US space programme. Shetterly conducted extensive research, including interviews and archival work, to bring to light the stories of these women, such as Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson.

In addition to her writing, Shetterly founded The Human Computer Project, an organisation dedicated to archiving the work of women who contributed to the early days of computing and aeronautics. Her work has been recognised with several honours, including the 2017 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Nonfiction for Hidden Figures.