Karen A. Parker is a Black, bi, nonbinary author and editor of speculative fiction, and they’re determined to help you take your writing to the next level. Their enthusiasm, patience, and careful sensitivity for storytelling is informed by a deep, academic understanding of fiction writing as a craft and a well-rounded view of book publishing as a business.

After graduating cum laude from UC Irvine with a BA in English, a Creative Writing Emphasis in Fiction, and a minor in Japanese Language and Literature, they taught English in Gifu, Japan, for three years as an Assistant Language Teacher. Now attending UC Riverside’s Palm Desert MFA Program, they hope to research Esoteric Buddhism, oral storytelling tradition, and Black liberation for their second-world romantasy novel, the early pages of which will serve as their creative thesis. Their remastered short story collection, The Art of Capturing Phantoms: Definitive Edition, has received critical acclaim and earned them not only an Associate level membership with the esteemed Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association but also membership within the prestigious Codex Writers Group.

As an editor, they are passionate about amplifying diverse, marginalized, and underrepresented voices wherever and whenever they can. Serving as the former editor of the Voice to Books column for The Coachella Review, they gained the leadership skills necessary to facilitate the production of high-quality book reviews across multiple genres. They have since sharpened their editorial skills as a participant in the Sourcebooks BIPOC Editorial Training Program, a mentee in Tessera Editorial’s BIPOC Mentorship Program, and as a mentor in the LGBTQ+ Editors Association. When they’re not reading, writing, or editing, they enjoy cooking, cartomancy, composing music, critting in Dungeons & Dragons, and completing their video game collection.