M.A., University of Tennessee | M.F.A., University of Mississippi

Area of Specialty: Fiction 

Books: The Big Door Prize (G.P. Putnam's Sons), My Sunshine Away (G.P. Putnam’s Sons), The Prospect of Magic (Livingston Press).  Essays and stories in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Southern Review, Oxford American and others.

M.O. Walsh is a Professor of Fiction and currently serves as the Director of The Creative Writing Workshop MFA program at UNO.  He is the author of three books. His first book, the short story collection The Prospect of Magic, was the winner of the Tartt's First Fiction Prize and a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award for General Fiction. His first novel My Sunshine Away was an instant New York Times bestseller and winner of The Pat Conroy Award for Southern Fiction.  His second novel, The Big Door Prize was a finalist for the Thurber Award for American Humor and has since been adapted for television by the Emmy winning writer of Schitt's Creek, David West Read. It is currently streaming on Apple TV.  Walsh serves as a Producer on the show.

His stories and essays have appeared in The Paris Review, Southern Review, Oxford American, Garden and Gun, New York Times and many others. Walsh primarily teaches graduate level writing courses at UNO, with a strong interest in both the literature of the American South and speculative fiction. He has an M.A in Literature from the University of Tennessee and an MFA from the University of Mississippi. He was born and raised in Louisiana and currently lives near Lake Pontchartrain with his wife and family.