Thrity Umrigar is a Distinguished University Professor Emerita of English at Case Western Reserve University, where she taught from 2002 to 2026.  During her tenure at Case, Umrigar taught a wide array of literature courses ranging from African-American literature (with a special interest in Toni Morrison and James Baldwin) and the literature of 9/11, to the war novel and the immigrant novel. She regularly taught fiction workshops and nonfiction writing, with an emphasis on memoir writing, at the undergrad and graduate level. A former journalist, she also taught journalism in the early part of her career at Case, and was director of the Susie Gharib Distinguished Lectureship in Journalism for two years. She helped organize the first literary festival hosted by the English department on campus.

Umrigar, who holds a PhD from Kent State University, is the bestselling author of eleven novels, including The Space Between Us, Everybody’s Son (now being turned into a musical) and Honor (a Reese Book Club pick). She has also written a memoir and four children’s picture books. Her books have been translated into numerous languages and published in over twenty countries.

She has contributed to several national publications including The New York Times, the Washington Post and the Boston Globe.  A recipient of the Nieman Fellowship to Harvard, Umrigar is also a winner of the Cleveland Arts Prize, the Lambda Literary award, the Seth Rosenthal prize and was a finalist for the PEN/Beyond Margins award.  At Case, she was awarded the Baker-Nord Faculty Fellowship several times and was nominated for the Carl T. Wittke Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching a few times.

Umrigar is a founding member of Literary Cleveland and has participated in its Inkubator series. She has also introduced and interviewed speakers at Cuyahoga County Public Library’s Writer’s CenterStage series. She is active on the national lecture circuit and regularly speaks at literary festivals, libraries, college campuses and before civic organizations.