Denison University Professor Margot Singer has added another accolade to her literary career: a gold medal in the essay category from the Independent Publisher Book Awards for her essay collection Secret Agent Man. The collection, which tied for the gold medal with How to Change History: A Salvage Project by Robin Hemley, weaves nine personal narratives that explore memory and loss.
Singer’s recognition continues a trajectory of literary achievement. Her novel Underground Fugue earned the Edward Lewis Wallant Award for Jewish-American Fiction and the Nancy Dasher Award, while placing in the final five for the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature. Her debut story collection, The Pale of Settlement, captured the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, the Reform Judaism Prize, and the Glasgow/Shenandoah Prize for Emerging Writers, while also earning an Honorable Mention from PEN/Hemingway Award judges.
Beyond her books, Singer co-edited Bending Genre with Nicole Walker, a critical examination of creative nonfiction. Her essays and stories have graced the pages of leading literary journals including Agni, Conjunctions, the Gettysburg Review, the Kenyon Review, and The Sun.
The literary community has recognized Singer’s talent through fellowships and residencies, including awards from the Ohio Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the James Jones First Novel Fellowship, as well as residencies at renowned artists’ colonies, Ucross, Ragdale, and Yaddo.
A Marshall Scholar who earned a Ph.D. in English/Creative Writing from the University of Utah, an M.Phil. from Oxford and an undergraduate degree from Harvard, Singer spent a decade as a principal at McKinsey & Company before joining Denison as a member of the English faculty.
