Michel Lee Garrett (“me-shell” // she/her) is a crime fiction author, Pennsyltucky poet, and transgender activist.

She is:

• the author of Born a Ramblin’ Man: Fourteen Tales of Thieves, Killers, Vagabonds and Lost Souls(Shotgun Honey, 2025)

• the editor of Transcendent Love: True Stories of T4T Relationships, a collection of essays from trans writers around the world (JKP Books, forthcoming)

• the editor of Burning Down The House: Crime Fiction Incited by the Songs of the Talking Heads(Shotgun Honey, 2024)

Michel has worked as an investigative journalist, the communications director of a U.S. Senate campaign, the chair of an advocacy-focused LGBT+ nonprofit, and the speechwriter to the president of a major research university.

When she's not writing, Michel can be found at local punk shows, watching pro wrestling, cheering at roller derby matches and women's hockey games, and rooting for the Pittsburgh Pirates. She lives in Central Pennsylvania with her wife and two kids, where she's a step-mom in a joyous blended family.

Things people have called Michel
(not under duress, she promises)

“Not only a brilliant writer, but an important one.”
—Libby Cudmore, award-winning author of Negative Girl and The Big Rewind

“A ferocious and talented writer.”
—James D.F. Hannah, Shamus Award-winning author of Behind the Wall of Sleep and Because the Night

“One of America’s up-and-coming great storytellers.”
—T. Fox Dunham, author of The Street Martyr, Mercy, and Destroying the Tangible Illusion of Reality