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Karen Joy Fowler

Biography

Karen Joy Fowler

Karen Joy Fowler,
born on February 7, 1950, lived in Bloomington, Indiana--where her
father was a professor of psychology--until she was eleven years
old. "Bloomington lives in my mind as a sort of Oz-like place where
I caught fireflies and watched lightning and ran around. None of
the yards were fenced, so we could play games that covered massive
amounts of territory." She then moved to Palo Alto, California, and
was outraged to find that all the yards were fenced. "As part of
growing up, I suppose, the things I was expected to do got smaller
and smaller anyway, in the same way that the territory I was
allowed to occupy got smaller and smaller because of the
differences between California and Indiana."

Fowler majored in political science at the University of California
at Berkeley, and had her first baby at twenty-three during the last
year of her master's program at the University of California at
Davis. After completing her master's degree, she entered what she
refers to as her "child-rearing years." Though she loves her two
children with an intensity that still amazes her, Fowler--then
thirty years old--began to feel restless. She decided to take a
dance class to reclaim some territory of her own. "And it was only
after I realized that I wasn't going to make it as a dancer that I
took a creative writing class in Davis."

Fowler began to publish science fiction stories. She soon made a
name for herself in the sci-fi community with the publication of
Artificial Things, a collection of short stories. She then wrote
her first novel, SARAH CANARY, a critically acclaimed book that she
hoped would bridge the gap between mainstream and science fiction.
Fowler considers her second novel, THE SWEETHEART SEASON, to be "a
romantic comedy with historical and fantastical elements."

In 1991, Fowler, along with science fiction writer Pat Murphy,
created the James Tiptree Jr. Memorial Award which, in Fowler's
words, "is presented annually to a short story or novel that
explores or expands our understanding of gender...both to honor
Alice Sheldon [the science fiction author who used the pen name
James Tiptree] and to remind the field of its own importance in the
continual struggle to re-imagine more livable sexual roles for
ourselves." Karen Joy Fowler, who lives in Davis and now writes
full time.