Lori Rader-Day is the Edgar® Award-nominated and Agatha, Anthony, and Mary Higgins Clark award-winning author of The Death of Us, Death at Greenway, The Lucky One, Under a Dark Sky, The Day I Died, Little Pretty Things, and The Black Hour. She lives in Chicago, where she is co-chair of the mystery readers’ festival Midwest Mystery Conference (fka Murder and Mayhem in Chicago) and served as 2019-2020 national president of Sisters in Crime. She teaches creative writing for Northwestern University’s School of Professional Studies.
Here’s the longer version: Award-winning crime novelist Lori Rader-Day was born in Boone County, Indiana, and lived most of her childhood in homes surrounded by cornfields. She attended Western Boone Jr.-Sr. High School, which is also surrounded by cornfields—and a graveyard. She earned BS and MA journalism degrees from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, which is, yes, also surrounded by cornfields. She later earned a master of fine arts degree in creative writing from Roosevelt University, which is surrounded by Chicago.
Lori is the author of the crime fiction novels The Death of Us, Death at Greenway, The Lucky One, Under a Dark Sky, The Day I Died, Little Pretty Things, and The Black Hour, and has had short fiction published in several publications, including Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. Her next novel will be released in late 2025/early 2026.
Lori is the recipient of the 2016 Mary Higgins Clark Award, the 2022 Agatha Award for Best Historical Novel, the 2015 Anthony Award for Best First Novel, and both the 2018 and 2019 Anthony Awards for Best Paperback Original Novel. She has also been nominated for the Edgar Award, one of the highest honors in crime fiction, and the Thriller, Barry, Macavity, and Left Coast Crime Lefty awards. In 2016, Lori received the Outstanding Journalism Alumnus Award from Ball State University. She is a past recipient of the Indiana Author Award, winning the regional category in 2017.
Lori has held several professional positions in advertising and marketing communications, working primarily in higher education advancement and non-profit health care communications. She worked in the Ball State University Office of University Relations for four years, assisting clients that included the new College of Communication, Information, and Media (heavily guarding that serial comma against all invaders). She was most recently the director of communications for the School of Communication at Northwestern University and now teaches in Northwestern University’s MFA in Poetry and Prose program in the School of Professional Studies. She has previously taught at Ball State University, Roosevelt University, Yale University, Antioch Writers Workshop, Midwest Writers Workshop, and others.
Lori has been an active leader in the crime fiction community. She is a former regional chapter president and national board member for Mystery Writers of America and is a past national president of Sisters in Crime, a 4500-member writers’ organization focused on equity and inclusion in crime publishing. She is a founding co-chair of the non-profit mystery readers’ event Midwest Mystery Conference.
Lori lives in Chicago with her husband Greg and their dog Clementine. Visit her at www.LoriRaderDay.com or follow her on Facebook or Instagram.
She is represented by Sharon Bowers of Folio Literary Management and for film by Anonymous Content.
I am privileged to work and live on the land of the Myaamia and Potowatomi peoples.