Doug Worgul (born September 13, 1953) is an American writer and editor, living in Kansas City.

Worgul's first novel, Thin Blue Smoke, set in a fictional barbecue joint in Kansas City, is a story of love, loss, despair, redemption, squandered gifts, second chances, whiskey, God, and the secret language of rabbits.

His writing has been compared to that of John Irving, Richard Russo, Kent Haruf, David James Duncan, and Frederick Buechner.

Matthew Quick, author of the critically acclaimed novel Silver Linings Playbook, praised Thin Blue Smoke, saying "As Norman Maclean's A River Runs Through It does for Montana fly-fishing, Doug Worgul's Thin Blue Smoke makes the poetry of Kansas City barbecue accessible to all readers.

Rajiv Joseph, the Pulitzer Prize-nominated playwright also praised Worgul's Thin Blue Smoke, saying "Emerging from this book, I want to go back, I want to live with these characters for just a little longer, I want their voices in my head.

Thin Blue Smoke is a wandering through a community bound by their shared histories, their dreams, and the food they love.

A review posted on Amazon (April 2020) said of Thin Blue Smoke “…the prose will draw you in like a John Prine song.” In 2009, the (UK) website Mr B's Emporium of Reading Delights said Thin Blue Smoke was “As gentle & positive as a novel can be in the 21st century without being naff”.

In January 2019, Worgul was named the first Visiting Author in Residence at University of Missouri Honors College.