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Kara H.L. Chen grew up near Cleveland, Ohio, where she once had to shovel snow off her car with a plastic trashcan. She now lives on the West Coast with her husband and daughters, and is learning how to use an Instapot. She has undergraduate degrees in English and economics, a J.D., and a MFA in fiction. She has used her economics degree exactly once, when she tried to make a joke about marginal costs and marginal returns. It did not go well.


(More official bio!)

Kara H.L. Chen is a Taiwanese American writer who received her MFA in fiction from Brooklyn College. Her debut novel, LOVE & RESISTANCE (Quill Tree/Harper Collins), was a 2024 finalist for the Ohioana Book Award (Middle Grade & Young Adult Literature) and was included in the 2024 “Recommended Literature List” for Grades 9-12 by the California Department of Education. She is also the author of ASKING FOR A FRIEND (Quill Tree/HarperCollins), which was a finalist for the 2025 Ohio Book Awards (formerly the Ohioana Book Awards) and included in the 2026 Choose to Read Ohio booklist by the State Library of Ohio, the Ohioana Library, the Ohio Center for the Book and the CTRO Advisory Council.