Michael Sirois

Author

Michael Sirois grew up wanting to be an actor, or a writer, or a drummer, all of which he pursued during high school and college, adding a three-year stint as a radio disc jockey to the mix. He worked at a variety of odd jobs while paying his own way through college. In the late 1970’s, armed with drama and English degrees, he taught creative writing, drama, and technology to Houston students for twenty-three years, but continued to act and write. In 2002, he accepted a position as a program manager for Rice University’s Center for Excellence and Equity in Education, retiring in 2009 to write full time. He is primarily a novelist, but has also dabbled in a variety of other works (poetry, short stories, plays, screenplays, and non-fiction). His published books include The Jagged Man (which will be republished in 2023); the If a Butterfly series (published 2021); and Aggravated: The True Story of How a Series of Lies Sent an Innocent Man to Prison (published 2020). Aggravated is about Michael’s brother, Steve Sirois, who was falsely accused of a horrific crime, sexual assault of a child, and was sentenced to 35 years in a Texas prison. The book, using court transcripts, affidavits, interviews, and a variety of other factual data, lays out a devastating portrait of an untruthful accuser, an overzealous prosecutor, a jury that made a deal to swap votes in order to gain a conviction, and the series of lies that led to that outcome.