Karen Joy Fowler

Karen Joy Fowler is the author of three story collections and six novels, including We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, which won the PEN/Faulkner Award as well as the California Book Award for Fiction for 2013, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize the first year the prize was open to Americans.  She is also the author of The Jane Austen Book Club, which was on the New York Times bestseller list for nineteen weeks and was made into a major motion picture. In addition, her novel Sister Noon was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. Consistently acclaimed by critics, most of her titles have been New York Times Notable Books and named to many best-of-year lists.

Fowler’s lectures are filled with same imagination, sharp wit, and honesty that fill the pages of her book. A master of multiple genres, including science fiction, fantasy, literary fiction and short stories, Fowler’s lectures have wide-appeal for book lovers of all types.

Fowler is also the co-founder of the James Tiptree, Jr. Award and the current president of the Clarion Foundation (also known as Clarion San Diego).

Born and raised in an academic family in Bloomington, Indiana, she holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in South Asian Studies from the University of California, Berkeley.  She lived for many years in Davis, California, and now lives in Santa Cruz.