Karen Barrow

Karen Barrow is the award-winning author of Palmyra, winner of the 2024 Whistler Independent Book Award for Fiction and a finalist for the Guernica Prize, the Page Turner Awards, and the Eric Hoffer Award.

Set on a remote cocoa estate in colonial Trinidad, Palmyra is a Caribbean Gothic suspense novel told through the eyes of an eleven-year-old boy. It explores family secrets, betrayal, identity, and the dangerous cost of ambition.

Her second novel, Dreams of the Alhambra, was published in Spring 2026. Set across two timelines, it follows a modern Canadian student recovering from trauma and a 15th-century Moorish princess caught in a kingdom on the brink of upheaval. Blending historical intrigue, romance, and subtle magical realism, the novel explores love, identity, memory, and resilience.

Born in Trinidad and now living in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley, Karen draws inspiration from her lifelong love of travel and the cultures, landscapes, and histories she encounters. These experiences bring a vivid sense of place to her fiction.

For more information about Karen and her books, visit karenbarrowbooks online and on Instagram, and Karen Barrow on Facebook.