Margot McGovern is an award winning YA and Horror author based in Adelaide, South Australia.

Her most recent novel, This Stays Between Us, won the inaugural John Marsden Prize for Writing for Young Adults in the 2026 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, is a 2026 CBCA Notable in the Older Readers category, and was shortlisted for Best Horror Novel and Best YA Novel in the 2026 Aurealis Awards and for Best Young Adult Novel in the 2026 Thriller Awards.

Her debut YA novel, Neverland, was shortlisted for the Text Prize and the Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature, and her horror fiction appears in the Aurealis Award-shortlisted anthology, Hometown Haunts: #LoveOzYA Horror Tales (Wakefield Press, 2021) and issues of The Dark.

Her third novel, Our Dark Unravelling, is set to be published in September 2026. 

She holds a creative writing Ph.D. from Flinders University and is a former member of the LoveOzYA committee. Margot is also a workshop presenter, writing mentor and occasional book reviewer. She is represented by Danielle Binks and you can find her on Instagram: @margot.mcgovern.

Margot can be booked for school workshops and events via Becky’s Literary Bookings.