Karen Palmer

All You Need to Know

I am an only child (but not spoiled, really), spent twelve years in Catholic schools and seven more off-and-on years in college — but my education largely took place at the Cahuenga Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library. I have two daughters (one a lawyer, the other a cryptologist), have had two husbands (not at the same time; contrary to popular wisdom, occasionally you need to measure once and cut twice), and have lived in Fairbanks, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Boulder, Astoria (Oregon — where The Goonies was filmed; my banner photo is of Astoria at night), and LA (again). I’d rather eat than sleep, but would rather read than eat. I play classical piano well enough to impress the relatives and have watched Felicia “Snoop” Pearson’s ode to nailguns, from the opening episode of The Wire, Season 4, so many times I have it memorized.

The Official Version

Karen Palmer is the author of the novels All Saints and Border Dogs, both published by Soho Press. She has received a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and grants from the Colorado Council on the Arts. A short story in The Kenyon Review, "Virtuoso Mio," received a 2005 Pushcart Prize, and is anthologized in The Bedford/St. Martin’s Guide to Literature. Other work has appeared in the Denver Post, Kalliope, and Fiction Monthly. She teaches at UCLA Extension and at Lighthouse Writers in Denver, Colorado.