Karen Osborne

Karen Osborne was born in Niskayuna, New York. She graduated from Niskayuna High School and attended Nazareth College near Rochester, New York, studying English, communication and information design. Her first job was as a packer of Tupperware orders; she has been an English teacher, wedding videographer, cashier, bookseller, and press release writer. She has worked for community weekly newspapers in New York, Florida, and Maryland as a reporter, photographer, editor, and website manager, winning awards for hews and opinion writing.Sorg, Arley. "[https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/osborne_interview/ Thrilling to the Harmony: A Conversation with Karen Osborne]" in Clarkesworld, Feb. 2021.

Osborne is currently a full-time writer living in Baltimore, Maryland with, as she writes, "two violins, an autoharp, five cameras, two cats, and a family."Osborne, Karen. "[http://www.karenosborne.com/about-2/ About]."

Before the pandemic she played fiddle in the Homespun Ceilidh Band, based in the DC/Maryland area and electric violin for the fusion group Circle of Confusion, as well as emceeing the Baltimore-based Charm City Spec reading series and running 5k races.

Osborne's earliest attempt to sell fiction was a spec script for Star Trek: Voyager, written as a teen with a friend. She framed the rejection letter. She attended the 2016 Viable Paradise workshop and the 2017 Clarion Writers' Workshop at UCSD. Her work has appeared in various periodicals, webzines and podcasts, including Aoife's Kiss, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Clarkesworld, Electric Spec, Escape Pod, Fireside Quarterly, Future Science Fiction Digest, and Uncanny Magazine, and the anthologies The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume 5, Event Horizon 2018, The Long List Anthology: Volume 6, Nebula Awards Showcase 55, and [https://robotdinosaurfiction.com/ Robot Dinosaur Fiction!].

Osborne was a nominee but not a finalist for the 2019 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. Her story "The Dead, in Their Uncontrollable Power" was nominated for the 2020 Nebula Award for Best Short Story, placed 17th in the 2020 Locus Poll Award for Best Short Story, was a finalist for the 2020 Sturgeon Award for Best Short Science Fiction,{{cite web |title=Sturgeon Award Winner |url=https://locusmag.com/2020/10/sturgeon-award-winner/ |website=Locus Online |access-date=March 23, 2025 |date=October 20, 2020}} and was a nominee but not a finalist for the 2020 Hugo Award for Best Short Story. Her novel Architects of Memory was nominated for the 2020 Bisexual Book Award for speculative fiction,{{cite web |title=2020 Bisexual Book Awards Winners |url=https://locusmag.com/2021/06/2020-bisexual-book-awards-winners/ |website=Locus Online |access-date=March 23, 2025 |date=June 14, 2021}} one of 10 finalists for the 2021 Locus Poll Award for Best First Novel,{{cite web |title=2021 Locus Awards Top Ten Finalists |url=https://locusmag.com/2021/05/2021-locus-awards-top-ten-finalists/ |website=Locus Online |access-date=March 23, 2025 |date=May 1, 2021}} and was nominated for the 2021 Compton Crook Award for Best First Novel.

• Architects of Memory (978-1-250-21547-5, Tor, Sep. 2020){{cite web |title=Architects of Memory by Karen Osborne |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781250215475 |work=Publishers Weekly |access-date=March 23, 2025 |date=April 14, 2020}}{{cite web |last1=Bourke |first1=Liz |title=Liz Bourke Reviews Architects of Memory by Karen Osborne |work=Locus Online |url=https://locusmag.com/2020/12/liz-bourke-reviews-architects-of-memory-by-karen-osborne/ |access-date=March 23, 2025 |date=December 17, 2020}}{{cite web |title=Architects of Memory |url=https://www.booklistonline.com/Architects-of-Memory/pid=9734784 |url-access=subscription |website=Booklist Online |access-date=March 23, 2025}}
• Engines of Oblivion (978-1-250-21550-5, Tor, Feb. 2021){{cite web |title=Engines of Oblivion by Karen Osborne |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781250215505 |access-date=March 23, 2025 |work=Publishers Weekly |date=December 4, 2020}}{{cite web |last=Chadwick |first=Kristi |title=Engines of Oblivion |url=https://www.libraryjournal.com/review/engines-of-oblivion |website=Library Journal |access-date=March 23, 2025 |date=January 1, 2021}}

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• "Retirement" (from Aoife's Kiss #7, Dec. 2008)
• "Gazer" (from Electric Spec v. 11, iss. 4, November 30, 2016)
• "An Equal Share of the Bone" (from Escape Pod #603, November 23, 2017)
• "Even to the Teeth" (from Robot Dinosaur Fiction!, July 6, 2018)
• "Dollhouse" (from Escape Pod #641, August 16, 2018)
• "The Bodice, the Hem, the Woman, Death" (from Beneath Ceaseless Skies #263, October 25, 2018){{cite web |last1=Truesdale |first1=Dave |title=Beneath Ceaseless Skies #263, October 25, 2018 |url=https://tangentonline.com/e-marketbi-weekly/beneath-ceaseless-skies/beneath-ceaseless-skies-263-october-25-2018/ |website=Tangent Online |access-date=March 23, 2025 |date=November 2, 2018}}{{cite web |last1=Burnham |first1=Karen |title=Karen Burnham Reviews Short Fiction: Clarkesworld, BCS, Strange Horizons, Giganotosaurus, and Tor.com |url=https://locusmag.com/2019/01/karen-burnham-reviews-short-fiction-clarkesworld-bcs-strange-horizons-giganotosaurus-and-tor-com/ |website=Locus Online |access-date=March 23, 2025 |date=January 28, 2019}}
• "The Blanched Bones, the Tyrant Wind" (from Fireside Quarterly, Jan. 2019)
• "The Dead, in Their Uncontrollable Power" (from Uncanny Magazine iss. 27, Mar./Apr. 2019)
• "The Two-Bullet War" (from Beneath Ceaseless Skies #278, May 23, 2019){{cite web |last1=Truesdale |first1=Dave |title=Beneath Ceaseless Skies #278, May 23, 2019 |url=https://tangentonline.com/e-marketbi-weekly/beneath-ceaseless-skies/beneath-ceaseless-skies-278-may-23-2019/ |website=Tangent Online |access-date=March 23, 2025 |date=June 1, 2019}}{{cite web |last1=Burnham |first1=Karen |title=Karen Burnham Reviews Short Fiction: Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, and BCS |url=https://locusmag.com/2019/09/karen-burnham-reviews-short-fiction-clarkesworld-lightspeed-and-bcs/ |website=Locus Online |access-date=March 23, 2025 |date=September 25, 2019}}
• "Cratered" (from Future Science Fiction Digest iss. 3, Jun. 2019){{cite web |last1=Silverwolf |first1=Victoria |title=Future Science Fiction Digest #3, June 2019 |url=https://tangentonline.com/e-market-quarterly/future-science-fiction-digest-e-market-quarterly/future-science-fiction-digest-3-june-2019/ |website=Tangent Online |access-date=March 23, 2025 |date=June 16, 2019}}
• "Promises We Made Under a Brick-Dark Sky" (from Clarkesworld iss. 178, Jul. 2021){{cite web |last1=Truesdale |first1=Dave |title=Clarkesworld #178, July 2021 |url=https://tangentonline.com/e-market-monthly/clarkesworld-178-july-2021/ |access-date=March 23, 2025 |work=Tangent Online |date=July 23, 2021}}{{cite web |last1=Burnham |first1=Karen |title=Karen Burnham Reviews Short Fiction: Clarkesworld, Tor.com, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Lightspeed, and Future Science Fiction Digest |url=https://locusmag.com/2021/10/karen-burnham-reviews-short-fiction-clarkesworld-tor-com-beneath-ceaseless-skies-lightspeed-and-future-science-fiction-digest/ |access-date=March 23, 2025 |work=Locus Online |date=October 26, 2021}}

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• "[https://whatever.scalzi.com/2020/09/21/the-big-idea-karen-osborne/ The Big Idea: Karen Osborne]" (on John Scalzi's Whatever, September 21, 2020)
• "[https://www.tor.com/2020/09/21/five-books-where-assuming-aliens-are-just-like-you-might-get-you-killed/ Five Books Where Assuming Aliens Are Just Like You Might Get You Killed]" (on Tor.Com, September 21, 2020)

• Wise, A. C. "[http://www.acwise.net/?p=3271 An Interview with Karen Osborne]", September 8, 2020.
• "[https://tbplofftheshelf.com/2021/01/06/interview-with-karen-osborne/ Interview with Karen Osborne]" (at Thunder Bay Public Library's Off The Shelf, January 6, 2021)
• Sorg, Arley. "[https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/osborne_interview/ Thrilling to the Harmony: A Conversation with Karen Osborne]" in Clarkesworld, Feb. 2021.

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• {{official website|http://www.karenosborne.com/}}

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Category:Living people

Category:21st-century American women writers

Category:American speculative fiction writers

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)

Category:Nazareth University alumni