After studying history at Glasgow University, Louise Welsh established a second-hand bookshop, where she worked for many years. Her first novel, The Cutting Room, won several awards, including the 2002 Crime Writers’ Association John Creasey Memorial Dagger, and was jointly awarded the 2002 Saltire Society Scottish First Book of the Year Award. Louise was granted a Robert Louis Stevenson Memorial Award in 2003, a Scotland on Sunday/Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Award in 2004, and a Hawthornden Fellowship in 2005.

She is a regular radio broadcaster, has published many short stories, and has contributed articles and reviews to most of the British broadsheets. She has also written for the stage. The Guardian chose her as a woman to watch in 2003.

Her second book, Tamburlaine Must Die, a novelette written around the final three days of the poet Christopher Marlowes life, was published in 2004. Her third novel, The Bullet Trick (2006), is a present-day murder mystery set in Berlin.

The Cutting Room 2002
Tamburlaine Must Die 2004
The Bullet Trick 2006
Naming The Bones 2010

Prizes and awards
2002 Crime Writers Association John Creasey Memorial Dagger The Cutting Room

2002 Saltire Society Scottish First Book of the Year Award (joint winner) The Cutting Room

2003 BBC Underground Award (writer category) The Cutting Room

2003 Robert Louis Stevenson Memorial Award

2004 Corine Internationaler Buchpreis: Rolf Heyne Debutpreis (Germany) The Cutting Room

2004 Scotland on Sunday/Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Award

2004 Stonewall Book Award (US) (honor in literature)