Novelist, journalist, and witty, no-nonsense social commentator, Karen Karbo is the author most recently of How Georgia Became O'Keeffe:Lessons on the Art of Living, hailed by Vanity Fair as "simply a revelation." How to Hepburn, published in 2007, was praised by the Philadelphia Inquirer as "an exuberant celebration of a great original"; The Gospel According to Coco Chanel, published in 2009, became a national bestseller.
Karen's first novel, Trespassers Welcome Here, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and a Village Voice Top Ten Book of the Year. Her other two adult novels, The Diamond Lane and Motherhood Made a Man Out of Me, were also named New York Times Notable Books. Her 2004 memoir, The Stuff of Life, about the last year she spent with her father before his death, was an NYT Notable Book, a People Magazine Critics' Choice, a Books for a Better Life Award finalist, and a winner of the Oregon Book Award for Creative Non-fiction. Her short stories, essays, articles, and reviews have appeared in Elle, Vogue, Esquire, Outside, the New York Times, salon.com and other magazines. She is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Fiction, and a winner of the General Electric Younger Writer Award.
Karen grew up in Los Angeles, California and lives in Portland, Oregon where, like the 20th century cultural icons profiled in her biography-cum-self-help guides, she kicks ass.