Carol L. Dougherty

New update: Smiling at Grief, was a nominee in two categories in the 2025 Golden Crown Literary Society Awards!

Carol L. Dougherty has worked in professional theatre, Boys & Girls Clubs of Western Pennsylvania, San Francisco Zen Center, and Writers Retreat Workshop as well as several non-profit organizations.

Carol's latest book, Smiling at Grief: A Sapphic Romance, was inspired by her years of working in the theatre. Although it is not based on any individual, some of the characters were inspired by some of the people she encountered during those years.

Carol spent four years in night school classes while working full time during the day in the athletic department at Duquesne, where her book, How Full of Briers: The Organizational Structure of the Non-Profit Theatre Corporation, began as a research project. She has worked professionally with the Three Rivers Shakespeare Festival, City Theatre Company, and University of Pittsburgh Theatre, and was also Managing Director of the Berkshire Theatre Festival from 1988-1990.

Carol has also published a political thriller, The Santiago Inheritance, a political thriller set in the dying days of the Pinochet regime, as well as updating and co-editing the 2019 edition of 100 Ways to Improve Your Writing, originally written in 1972 by her writing teacher and mentor, the late Gary Provost. She worked with Gary’s widow, Gail Provost Stockwell on the book, and taught Gary’s curriculum at the Writers Retreat Workshop for a number of years after his death. She has continued to run writing workshops and classes in a variety of locations.