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Biography
Karen Olsson (born 1972) is an American novelist and journalist. Her second novel, All the Houses, will be published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 2015. Set in Washington, D.C., it is narrated by the middle daughter of a family that has come undone in the wake of the Iran-contra scandal. Her first novel, Waterloo (FSG 2005), is set in a thinly veiled version of Austin, Texas. The book follows a down-on-his-motivation reporter at an alternative weekly paper as he tries to get over a failed relationship and investigate some irregular goings-on at the state capitol. Writing in the New York Times Book Review, Mark Costello described Waterloo as "a melancholy comedy of Texas politics [written] with great wit and assurance."
A former editor of The Texas Observer, Olsson is a contributing editor at Texas Monthly and has written for Slate.com and The New York Times Magazine. She lives in Austin with her family.