Karen Collier is a native Texan. She spent twenty long years in high tech before becoming a high school English teacher and discovering how the other half lives: in poverty. She left teaching after five years to pursue life as a creative writer. Her work has been published by NextTribe, Full Grown People, Treehouse, Causeway Lit, The Austin American Statesman, The First Line, and The Ocotillo Review. One of her short stories was recently included in the Saturday Evening Post's 2021 Great American Fiction Contest anthology.