Karen Bell

Degrees and Credentials

M.S. Creative Writing, Edinburgh University, 2014
B.A. Pennsylvania State University

Short Bio

Bell's essays, stories, illustrations, and graphic narratives have appeared in numerous journals. She is the 2019 recipient of Crab Orchard Review’s John Guyon Literary Nonfiction Prize, a semifinalist in Boulevard’s Nonfiction Contest for Emerging Writers, and a several-time nominee for a Pushcart small press award. Her work explores rural queer identity and healing from trauma. She currently teaches creative nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and composition.

Research, Accomplishments, and Publications

"Katelyn Rinnetta Benoit" and "Sam Nordquist" The Indianapolis Review Fall 2025
"How to Construct Gender" subTerrain Magazine · Mar 21, 2024
"Out" The Offing · Feb 29, 2024
"The Paradox of Forgiveness" Catamaran Literary Reader · Aug 11, 2021
"Forty-One Days of Mourning" HerStry · Aug 20, 2020
"Queer Abroad in Kerala" Hotel Amerika · Jan 1, 2020
"Reclaiming the Body " Punctuate Magazine · Jan 1, 2020
"Some Necessary Risks" LUMINA Journal · Dec 1, 2019
"The Body After" Crab Orchard Review · Jun 1, 2019
"Art Exposure" Still Point Arts Quarterly · Jan 1, 2019
"Queer Abroad in Dublin" Qommunicate Publishing · Jan 1, 2019
"Queer Abroad in Edinburgh" Little Patuxent Review · Jan 1, 2019
"Waiting for Divinity" Verity La · Jan 1, 2019 
"Jagged Space" The Seventh Wave · Jan 1, 2018
"Past Pitch of Grief" The Louisville Review · Jan 1, 2018
"How to Bake and Crumble a Virtuous Woman" Harpur Palate 17.2 · Jan 1, 2017