Katy Hays is the New York Times bestselling author of The Cloisters (Atria, 2022) and Saltwater (Ballantine, 2025). Her books have been selected for Read with Jenna and Barnes & Noble’s book club as well as received starred reviews in Publisher’s Weekly and Booklist. Her next novel, Becoming Famous in America (Ballantine, 2027), a genre departure, takes a humorous and gimlet look at the way scandal can shape women’s lives in America. Her academic writing has been published by Ashgate, an imprint of Routledge and her humor writing has appeared in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency.