She was the recipient of the George Bennett Fellowship for Creative Writing at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire.
According to Moriarty, her debut novel (The Center Of Everything), described as "a warm, beguiling book full of hard-won wisdom"[1] by the New York Times, was deeply influenced by a reading of Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World.
[2] Other writers who have had a deep influence on Moriarty include Margaret Atwood, Tobias Wolff, and Jane Hamilton.
In 2017, Kirkus Reviews removed its starred review of Moriarty's novel American Heart on account of the book's "white point of view" and "public concern" about the novel's alleged "white savior narrative", as described by editor-in-chief Claiborne Smith in interviews with Vulture and NPR.
[4] Moriarty commented that "the takeaway [from this episode] for white writers is don't even try to write about people who are different from you.