Mona Awad author page

Mona Awad biography

Mona Awad is a Canadian novelist whose books combine literary fiction, psychological horror, dark comedy and elements of fantasy. She studied at York University in Toronto, earned an MFA in fiction from Brown University and an MScR in English from the University of Edinburgh, and completed a PhD in Creative Writing and English Literature at the University of Denver. She has worked as a journalist, bookseller and university lecturer, and teaches fiction in the Creative Writing programme at Syracuse University.

Her debut novel, 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl, was published by Penguin in 2016. Told through interconnected stories, it follows Lizzie as she navigates relationships, body image and changing expectations about her appearance. The book won the 2016 Amazon Canada First Novel Award and the 2017 Colorado Book Award for Literary Fiction. It was also shortlisted for the 2016 Scotiabank Giller Prize.

Awad’s second novel, Bunny (2019), was published by Viking in the United States and Head of Zeus in the UK. Set within a university creative writing programme, it follows Samantha Heather Mackey, a graduate student drawn into a secretive group of wealthy classmates whose writing exercises take an increasingly disturbing turn. The novel was a finalist for the New England Book Award and a Goodreads Choice Award, and its film rights were acquired by Bad Robot Productions.

Her third novel, All’s Well (2021), follows Miranda Fitch, a former actress directing a university production of Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well. It was longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award. Her fourth novel, Rouge (2023), explores beauty, grief and obsession through the story of a woman drawn into a mysterious spa following her mother’s death.

Awad returned to the fictional world of Bunny with We Love You, Bunny, published in the UK by Scribner UK on 23 September 2025. The novel revisits Samantha and her former classmates, presenting events from the group’s perspective. It became a New York Times bestseller and was shortlisted for the 2025 Giller Prize. Scribner UK subsequently published the paperback edition on 8 September 2026.