Katherine Cowley

Katherine Cowley is an American author of historical mysteries, short stories, and essays. She is also a lecturer.

Cowley lives in Michigan and has taught writing at Western Michigan University.

Writing awards Cowley's debut novel, The Secret Life of Miss Mary Bennet, was a finalist for the 2022 Mystery Writers of America Mary Higgins Clark Award of the Edgar Awards. The novel was the winner of 2022 Latter-day Saints in Publishing, Media, and the Arts (LDSPMA) Praiseworthy Award in the Suspense/Mystery category. It was also the finalist for the Whitney Awards for Best Mystery/Suspense and Best Debut Novel.

Cowley's blog, Jane Austen Writing Lessons, was one of the "100 Best Websites for Writers in 2021" according to The Write Life.

In 2024, an essay Cowley published in the journal Irreantum was nominated for the Pushcart Prize.

Selected works

Novels The Secret Life of Miss Mary Bennet, (Tule Publishing, 2021, ) The True Confessions of a London Spy, (Tule Publishing, 2022, ) The Lady's Guide to Death and Deception, (Tule Publishing, 2022, )

Nonfiction Write with Jane Austen: Masterclasses with the Master Storyteller, (Pointe Press, 2025, )

Short publications (selection) "The Justified Fear of Snow in Jane Austen's Emma." Jane Austen's World. Essay. 2022. "Revising for Tone During Difficult Times." Women Writers, Women's Books. Essay. 2022. A Rising Generation: Women in Power in Young Adult novels (Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, 53, Spring 2020, p 194–198.)

Short stories (selection) "Tatterhood and the Prince’s Hand." Unspun: A Collection of Tattered Fairy Tales. Novella. (CreateSpace Independent Publishing, 2018, ) "Confessions of a Mycologist." Mad Scientist Journal, Spring 2018, Volume CCI, Short story. (Mad Scientist Journal, 2018.) "The Last Bathroom." Defenestration. Short story. (Defenestration: A Literary Magazine Dedicated to Humor, 2016.) "The Clockwork Seer." Steel and Bone: Nine Steampunk Adventures. Novelette. (Xchyler Publishing, 2015, ) The Cultural Repository. Defenestration. Short story. (Defenestration: A Literary Magazine Dedicated to Humor, 2022.)