Karyn Zweifel

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

Karyn attended the Alabama School of Fine Arts as a drama major, which accounts for her 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 her tenure at the School of Fine Arts that Karyn began to cultivate an appreciation for the unconventional.

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

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

She lives in a spooky old house in a historic district of Birmingham with her family. Karyn enjoys gardening, cooking, reading and wandering through the neighborhood. She travels extensively for work and pleasure.