See a list of published work.


Karyn Kay Zweifel was born in McAlester, Oklahoma, a small town chiefly known as thehome of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. For miles around, friendly signs on the majorroads advise motorists not to pick up hitchhikers -- they may be escaping convicts.She began writing almost immediately. Her first literary project, at age six, was a puppetshow, featuring brown paper lunch sacks disguised as puppets. All the characters weredead by the end of the show. Soon after, Karyn became interested in history, writing ashort story about Harriet Tubbman and the Underground Railroad. She constantly wrotemovie scripts in her head, which resulted in many unfortunate spills due to her head inthe clouds and untied shoelaces.

She moved to the Deep South at the tender age of nine, and in her better momentsconsiders herself a Southerner. She continued to write, which prompted her sister topredict that Karyn would one day write the verbiage on the back of shampoo bottles. Thesister proved to be prophetic.

Karyn attended the Alabama School of Fine Arts as a drama major, which accounts forher well-polished histrionic skills. The study of theatre arts provided her with a thorough,if unusual, grasp of historic events, which she has yet to relinquish. It was during hertenure at the School of Fine Arts that Karyn began to cultivate an appreciation for theunconventional.

After a sudden departure from high school, Karyn attended LaGrange College inGeorgia before receiving a degree in English from the University of Alabama atBirmingham. Unaccountably startled to discover the sparse demand for Englishdegrees, Karyn wound up in a position as a junior copywriter for a direct responseadvertising agency. She fled that job in short order, and became a freelance advertisingcopywriter who dabbled in feature writing and storytelling to amuse her friends andfamily.

Karyn is the author of Southern Vampires, which was chosen by the American LibraryAssociation as a “quick pick” for young adult readers. She has also written CoveredBridge Ghost Stories, Dog-Gone Ghost Stories, Gorgeous Georgia, Great American Golfand The Contractor’s Book of Excuses. She is currently working on a history of theAlabama Institute for Deaf and Blind, traveling around the region to collect a variety offascinating stories about society and education from the perspective of people who aredifferently abled. Karyn also tells stories to children and adults wherever she finds agroup sitting still.

She lives in a spooky old house in a historic district of Birmingham with her family, whichincludes an extremely intelligent cat named Tabby. Karyn enjoys gardening, cooking,reading and wandering through the neighborhood with her ornery little dog Zoe. Shetravels extensively for work and pleasure.