Karen Lee is a Southern California native who earned her bachelor’s degree in economics at UCLA and her master’s degree in nursing at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing as a Coverdell Fellow. She served as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer for three stints, working with marginalized communities in rural Panama and the Philippines, and has traveled extensively throughout Europe and Asia seeking deeper meaning and connection.

That hiatus from conventional American life became a transformative experience which would inspire her to become a nurse. Those explorative years also spurred an interest in different cultures, Buddhist philosophy, and the facets of human nature.

Apart from a love of travel her hobbies include gardening, graphic and interior design, and collecting seashells, fossils, and other treasures from the natural world. Her tendencies include cleaning, organizing, making lists, and obsessing over big dogs, mid-century modern furniture, fine stationery, indigenous textiles, acoustic cover songs, and rare orchids. She maintains a mostly private life splitting her time between Baltimore and Los Angeles. As an Asian-American, she is proud to join emerging voices in the literary scene.