Karen Powell was born in Rochester, Kent. She left school at 16 but returned to education as a mature student to study English Literature at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge. She lives in York with her husband and daughter.
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Karen Powell
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"Powell’s sumptuous, careful prose vividly recreates Victorian Yorkshire and richly conveys Emily’s vibrant inner life that sets her imagination aflame as she writes “Wuthering Heights,” its wildness in her heart."
— Toronto Star, May 12 2025- Powell’s ability to bring Emily to life and give us Emily’s voice, so authentic and visceral, makes this novel extraordinary. Emily’s voice still echoes in this reader’s mind.— Historical Novels Review, May 6 2025
Powell evokes the windswept, fog-draped world of the Brontë sisters in gloomy hues that pay tribute to the trio’s gothic provenance.
— Library Journal, Apr 25 2025“Fifteen Wild Decembers,” offers a fresh perspective on the talented Brontë family, whose childhoods on the isolated, rain-lashed West Yorkshire moors nurtured their hearts and fueled their imaginations.
— Christian Science Monitor, Apr 1 2025- “With suitably gothic prose, Powell keenly evokes the landscape around Emily’s home as well as her active inner life. Brontë devotees will be delighted.”— Publishers Weekly, Feb 7 2025
- “Consistently elegant and absorbing, The River Within is a supremely accomplished first work...This is a novel whose shimmering surface conceals hidden depths.”— Minneapolis Star Tribune, Dec 18 2020
- “The River Within contains multitudes; it’s a fresh look at the pressures our caste systems place upon all of us, no matter where we come from.”— Los Angeles Times, Nov 25 2020
- ★ “[Karen Powell’s] novel about love, class, and secrecy in 1950s England reads as if it were written in the era the characters inhabit, her style and tone reminiscent of...Shirley Hazzard and Graham Greene. A mesmerizing escape.”— Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review), Oct 14 2020
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