About

Karen & doll heads.
Photo by Ailecia Ruscin

Karen M. Vaughn

I am a writer of magical realism/fabulism, specializing in short stories. My first collection of short stories, A Kiss for a Dead Film Star was published by Brain Mill Press in 2016 and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. A second collection of short stories, Death Comes for the Trophy Wife, was published October of 2021.

My fiction has also appeared in A cappella Zoo, Whiskey Island Magazine, Illya’s Honey, and REAL: Regarding Arts & Letters. I also write the occasional essay, as with my recent publication in Like the Wind, the gorgeous international magazine for runners.

Aside from all this, I am a runner, a mother, a wife, a perpetually intermediate guitar player, and a devotee of supernatural horror books and films (not necessarily in that order). I live in Lawrence, Ks with my family, although I consider myself geographically polyamorous.