Karen Harper, former Westerville North High School English Department facilitator, spoke with novelist Janet Beard at Gramercy Books in Bexley on Tuesday evening, March 5. Her latest book is titled American Duchess, a Novel of Consuelo Vanderbilt.
A New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author, Harper is a former college English instructor (The Ohio State University) and high school literature and writing teacher. A lifelong Ohioan, Harper and her husband love to travel. Besides her American settings, she loves the British Isles, where her Scottish and English roots run deep, and where she has set many of her historical novels about real British women: The Royal Nanny, The It Girls, and American Duchess.
The Harpers lived in southwest Florida for many winters, so her suspense novels, the South Shores Series, are set in the tropics. These books include Chasing Shadows, Drowning Tides and Falling Darkness, with Shallow Grave and other titles coming in the future.
Harper’s books have been published in many foreign languages and are available in print and eBook formats in English. Most are in large print and audio. She won the Mary Higgins Clark Award for her Amish-setting novel, Dark Angel. Harper has given numerous talks to readers and writers across the country. Her author collection can be found at The Ohio State University’s Rare Books and Manuscript Library.