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Karen Joy Fowler

Goodreads Author

Born

in Bloomington, Indiana, The United States

Website

http://www.karenjoyfowler.com/

Genre

Science Fiction & Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Literature & Fiction

Member Since

October 2008

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/karenjoyfowler

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Karen Joy Fowler is the New York Times bestselling author of seven novels and three short story collections. Her 2004 novel, The Jane Austen Book Club, spent thirteen weeks on the New York Times bestsellers list and was a New York Times Notable Book. Fowler’s previous novel, Sister Noon, was a finalist for the 2001 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction. Her debut novel, Sarah Canary, won the Commonwealth medal for best first novel by a Californian, was listed for the Irish Times International Fiction Prize as well as the Bay Area Book Reviewers Prize, and was a New York Times Notable Book. Fowler’s short story collection Black Glass won the World Fantasy Award in 1999, and her collection What I Didn’t See won the World Fantasy Award in 2011. Her m ...more

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Popular Answered Questions

How do you get inspired to write?

Karen Joy Fowler I turned thirty and took a good long look at my life. What did I really want, I asked myself. Whatever that was, it was time to get to it. Thirty year…moreI turned thirty and took a good long look at my life. What did I really want, I asked myself. Whatever that was, it was time to get to it. Thirty years old! Practically grown up.

It turned out what I wanted had been there all along. I just wasn’t asking the question. I just wasn’t listening to the answer. I wanted to write. I had always wanted to write.

I think lots of writers begin because they have a particular story they need to tell. That wasn’t me. I decided to be a writer long before I knew what stories I would write.

Step one: make the decision.

Step two: persuade yourself and your family that it’s a perfectly reasonable decision.

Step three: find the time in which to do this perfectly reasonable thing.

Step four: find your story.

Repeat and repeat and repeat for the rest of your life.
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How do you deal with writer’s block?

Karen Joy Fowler When I can’t go forward, I go back. I figure that somewhere earlier I made a wrong turn. If I can find that place and make a different choice, I might…moreWhen I can’t go forward, I go back. I figure that somewhere earlier I made a wrong turn. If I can find that place and make a different choice, I might be able to progress. I don’t call this writer’s block; I don’t want to dignify it by making it into a condition. I call it rewriting.

When I really can’t write, I read. Other writers are so inspiring! How beautifully they use language! They make me laugh. They make me cry. They make me want to do all those same things. So I squeeze out a sentence. If I like that one, I usually find there is another one waiting patiently for its turn. If I can get one whole paragraph, I feel pretty good.
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Karen Joy Fowler’s books

Average rating: 3.55 · 247,833 ratings · 27,193 reviews · 151 distinct works • Similar authors

	We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves 3.71 avg rating — 126,633 ratings — published 2013 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Jane Austen Book Club 3.10 avg rating — 71,029 ratings — published 2004 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Booth 3.83 avg rating — 15,069 ratings — published 2022 — 21 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Sarah Canary 3.42 avg rating — 1,666 ratings — published 1991 — 21 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Wit's End 2.79 avg rating — 1,433 ratings — published 1916 — 24 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Sister Noon 3.10 avg rating — 1,218 ratings — published 2001 — 24 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	What I Didn't See, and Other Stories 3.73 avg rating — 926 ratings — published 2002 — 19 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2016 by Karen Joy Fowler (Goodreads Author) (Editor), John Joseph Adams (Goodreads Author) (Series Editor), S.L. Huang (Goodreads Author) (Contributor) 3.59 avg rating — 788 ratings — published 2016 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Sweetheart Season 3.24 avg rating — 571 ratings — published 1996 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Black Glass 3.58 avg rating — 394 ratings — published 1998 — 17 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Karen Joy Fowler's Blog

Happy Ape Giving Day

October 15 is Giving Day for Apes. Time is running quickly out for donations to the Tacugama Chimp Sanctuary in Sierra Leone. You can sponsor a chimp or make a one time donation here — https://givingdayforapes.mightycause.com/organization/Tacugama-Chimpanzee-Sanctuary

The Tacugama Sanctuary continues to receive orphaned chimps at an alarming rate – 16 babies in the last 12 months, some arriving wou

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These Precious Days: Essays

by Ann Patchett

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Quotes by Karen Joy Fowler (?)

“When I run the world, librarians will be exempt from tragedy. Even their smaller sorrows will last only for as long as you can take out a book.”
― Karen Joy Fowler, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

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“Arriving late was a way of saying that your own time was more valuable than the time of the person who waited for you.”
― Karen Joy Fowler, The Jane Austen Book Club

tags: manners, punctuality

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“The happening and telling are very different things. This doesn’t mean that the story isn’t true,
only that I honestly don’t know anymore if I really remember it or only remember how to tell it. Language does this to our memories, simplifies, solidifies, codifies, mummifies. An off-told story is like a photograph in a family album. Eventually it replaces the moment it was meant to capture.”
― Karen Joy Fowler, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

tags: memories, storytelling, truth

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Polls

July 2022: Fantasy

Jade City by Fonda Lee

5 votes, 38.5%

Inferno by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle

4 votes, 30.8%

Suldrun's Garden by Jack Vance

3 votes, 23.1%

Sarah Canary by Karen Joy Fowler

1 vote, 7.7%

13 total votes

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Karen’s Friend Comments

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message 2: by Karen

Mar 08, 2014 03:39PM

Seana wrote: "Congratulations on your recent nomination for the Pen/Faulkner award, Karen. Although I wasn't surprised, I am delighted."
Thank you so much, Seana! I am both delighted AND surprised!

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message 1: by Seana

Mar 08, 2014 03:04PM

Congratulations on your recent nomination for the Pen/Faulkner award, Karen. Although I wasn't surprised, I am delighted.