Karen Karbo


Karen Karbo is an American author of novels, short stories, memoirs and other non-fiction.. Her first novel, Trespassers Welcome Here, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, as well as a Village Voice Top Ten Book of the Year. Her other two novels for adults, The Diamond Lane and Motherhood Made a Man Out of Me, were also named New York Times Notable Books.
Karbo's 2004 memoir, The Stuff of Life, is about the last year she spent with her father before his death. It was a 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.
Karbo's short stories, essays, articles, and reviews have appeared in Elle, Vogue, Esquire, Outside, O, More, The New Republic, 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.
Karbo is best known for her best-selling Kick Ass Women series, the most recent of which is How to Hepburn, published in 2007, was hailed by the Philadelphia Inquirer as "an exuberant celebration of a great original"; #1 ebook best-seller The Gospel According to Coco Chanel appeared in 2009. Other books in the series are How Georgia Became O'Keefe and Julia Child Rules.
Karbo has also written three books in the Minerva Clark mystery series for children: Minerva Clark Gets a Clue, Minerva Clark Goes to the Dogs, and Minerva Clark Gives Up the Ghost.
On May 5, 2020, HarperWave, an imprint of HarperCollins, will publish Yeah, No. Not Happening: How I Found Happiness Swearing Off Self-Improvement and Saying F*ck It All—and How You Can Too
Karbo grew up in Los Angeles, California and lives in Portland, Oregon.