About Karen

I write short and long fiction. I’ve had short pieces published in the 2023 Bournemouth Writing Prize anthology, The Saturday Paper and in Kill Your Darlings and have had stories shortlisted for the Stuart and Hadow Award (2021 & 2023) and the Southern Cross Short Story competition (2019).

My first novel was shortlisted in the 2019 Queensland Literary Awards – Glendower Award for Emerging Writers. In 2018 I was selected to participate in the QWC/Hachette manuscript development program and the ACT Writers Centre Hardcopy program. In 2023 I was awarded a Fellowship by the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers’ Centre.

I live in Brisbane, Australia, but have also lived in Adelaide, Melbourne and Cairns.

I hold an MPhil in Creative Writing and a PhD in Education from the University of Queensland and an M.A. in Applied Linguistics from the University of Melbourne. I have worked as a speech-language pathologist, university lecturer, primary school teacher and teacher-librarian.

These days I divide my time between creative writing and working as a project officer on health and education projects.