Karen Barrow was born on the Caribbean island of Trinidad, where she lived for eighteen years. Her studies took her to Canada, while marriage to a geologist took her across the country and beyond. Several degrees later, while working as an audiologist, Karen succumbed to her love of storytelling and used her passion for travel and love of nature to inspire her historical fiction novels. Palmyra, her first published work of fiction, won the Whistler Independent Book Award for Fiction. Judges also shortlisted the book for several other literary awards, including the Guernica Prize and the Page Turner Award. She lives with her husband in the scenic Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, where she practices yoga, hikes, bikes, paddleboards, and is an envious kite surfer groupie.