About

Karen G. Anderson (she/they) is a Seattle-based writer. Her writing adventures have taken her from journalism into arts reviewing, blogging, public speaking, and social media consulting.

She writes fiction and poetry as K.G. Anderson and on occasion narrates the stories of other authors. (Here’s a list of her published short fiction, in print and online.)

Her office in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood is on the land of the Duwamish People, which she acknowledges via Real Rent Duwamish.

Past Work — Karen has written for Rover and the Seattle Times and is an occasional contributor to January Magazine and Locus.

She worked at Apple as a staff writer for iReview, the producer for iCards, and the managing editor for Apple’s one-million-member.Mac Internet services website (the forerunner of iCloud). She was a member of the launch team for the iTunes Music Store. Before Apple, Karen edited Northwest Health magazine for Group Health Cooperative/Kaiser Permanente Washington and managed public information at Battelle’s Seattle Research Center. She was a reviewer for the original Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest, reported for the Hartford Courant and the New Haven Register, and freelanced for the Boston Globe Travel section.

Her past clients and contract agencies include Alltech Medical Systems America, Anthro-Tech, Concurrent Product Development, Houzz.com, 10x Medical Device Conference, Medical Marcom, Naples Florida Vacation Homes, Profound Networks, Promontory Press, Roambee, Virtuoso, Web1 Consulting, and Plymouth Housing.

Community Involvement — Karen belongs to professional organizations including the National Book Critics Circle, Broad Universe, the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA), and the Cat Writers’ Association. She is a past chair of the board of the Clarion West Writers Workshop, a past president of the board of Northwest Folklife, and has served on boards and organizing committees for groups including the Pat Graney Dance Company, Foolscap, Potlatch, Lonestarcon3, and Two Hour Transport.

WATCH: Here’s Karen’s Ignite Seattle presentation “What You’ll Wish You’d Known Before You Joined that Nonprofit Board.”

Technology Writing — Karen wrote the ebook Take Control of iPhone Basics and edited ebooks including Take Control of iWeb ’09 and the classic Take Control of Thanksgiving Dinner. She gave a RapidFire talk about the iPhone at MacWorld iWorld and was interviewed by Seattle 24×7.

Blogging / Social Media / Websites — A reviewer for the early Webby Awards, Karen has helped major companies design blogs and social media programs. She currently focuses on marketing strategies and social media for small businesses and arts organizations. Here Karen talks about the history of blogging on Chuck Joiner’s MacVoices TV.

Commentary — Karen’s bylined articles appear in a variety of news, trade, and regional publications, including Wearable World News (now Readwrite) and Seattle Magazine. Early in her career, she did commentary for KUOW-FM, Seattle’s NPR radio station. Her essay “Disaster Planning Guide for the Holidays” was featured on the podcast Inside Voice and she was interviewed by The Australian Planthunter about gardening mysteries. Her essay “Letters from My Past” appears in Laugh Out Loud: 40 Women Humorists Celebrate Then and Now…Before We Forget, the 2018 Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop anthology edited by Allia Zobel Nolan. She writes a regular humor column for the Home Owners Club in Seattle.

READ AND LISTEN:

“I live in a city whose name is synonymous with ‘coffee.’ What’s a poor tea drinker to do?” — from Karen’s radio commentary on KUOW-FM.

“Fuzzy. Persistent. Persnickety. Annoying. Allergy-inducing. I’m referring here not to felines, but to the literary subgenre of cat mysteries…” — from Karen’s review of cat mysteries at January Magazine.

“For women in their early 50s, a no-sweat 20-minute workout is about as useful as sprinkling salt substitute on your large order of greasy french fries.” — from Karen’s essay on fitness in In Our Prime: Empowering Essays by Women.