about
Karen writes about architecture, urbanism, art, and design for publications including Metropolis, ReadyMade, Time Out New York, The New York Times, and the London Guardian. She also edits the "You Are Here" department for Swink, a literary magazine, and is a senior editor at CBS Interactive. She has taught writing at Pratt Institute and the New School University and has performed her written work at venues such as The Moth urban storytelling series. Her first book, Crystal Cove Cottages: Islands in Time on the California Coast, is a Los Angeles Times bestseller.
Karen grew up in Southern California and received a B.A. in English and fine art from Pitzer College. She got her start in journalism in Portland, Oregon, where she founded Tonic, an alternative newspaper, and wrote and edited for Willamette Week, Portland’s Pulitzer-winning newsweekly. In 1999, she moved to New York and spent five years as a senior editor at Metropolis, covering urban planning, green architecture, landscape design, historic preservation, and public art.
She currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, urban planner Devan Reiff, and a Volkswagen that runs on biodiesel.
Karen writes about architecture, urbanism, art, and design for publications including Metropolis, ReadyMade, Time Out New York, The New York Times, and the London Guardian. She also edits the "You Are Here" department for Swink, a literary magazine, and is a senior editor at CBS Interactive. She has taught writing at Pratt Institute and the New School University and has performed her written work at venues such as The Moth urban storytelling series. Her first book, Crystal Cove Cottages: Islands in Time on the California Coast, is a Los Angeles Times bestseller.
Karen grew up in Southern California and received a B.A. in English and fine art from Pitzer College. She got her start in journalism in Portland, Oregon, where she founded Tonic, an alternative newspaper, and wrote and edited for Willamette Week, Portland’s Pulitzer-winning newsweekly. In 1999, she moved to New York and spent five years as a senior editor at Metropolis, covering urban planning, green architecture, landscape design, historic preservation, and public art.
She currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, urban planner Devan Reiff, and a Volkswagen that runs on biodiesel.