karen engelmann

I was born and raised in Iowa, earned a BFA in drawing and design from the University of Iowa, then pursued a career in Sweden — after pursuing a boyfriend there first — working freelance, then on staff at the daily newspaper Sydsvenska Dagbladet, and IKEA. After a decade, I made another fairly ridiculous transatlantic move to New York City, eventually working for Macy’s, Sotheby’s, Seth Godin Productions, Clickspring Design, and numerous free-lance clients. 

Eventually, I got serious about writing and received an MFA from Goddard College in 2009. My thesis project, The Stockholm Octavo was published by Ecco Press in 2012 and translated to 14 languages. The novel was a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice, Indie Next selection, and received starred reviews in Kirkus, Publisher’s Weekly, Booklist and Library Journal. It was listed in Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction for 2012, a grant recipient from the American Scandinavian Society, and a 2013 winner of the Washington Irving Book Award for Fiction. 

I was fortunate to be a 2014 Walter Dakin Fellow at the Sewanee Writers Conference and honored as one of ArtsWestchester’s 50 for 50 in 2015. My essay on Gustav III was included in 1789: 12 Authors Explore A Year of Rebellion, Revolution, and Change. (Candlewick Press, 2020.) Other work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Powell’s, 

Broad Street and other online sites. 

I’m currently working on a novel about the dangers and delights of cleaning your closet (Meeting Martha) have a finished draft of a novel about the challenges of longevity (Miss Hall’s Last Costume) and a decent number of pages from a novel about the future of Manhattan as a national park (Midtown.) I promote (mostly) non-partisan good cheer with drawings on Facebook and Instagram. I live in Phoenix full time now, and yes. I miss New York.