Karen Rigby

About the Author

Karen Rigby | Photo by Marie Feutrier | Hi-Res

Born in the Republic of Panama in 1979, Karen Rigby now lives and writes in Arizona. Her latest poetry book, Fabulosa, is forthcoming from JackLeg Press in 2024. Her debut poetry book, Chinoiserie (Ahsahta Press, 2012), was selected by Paul Hoover for a 2011 Sawtooth Poetry Prize, and described by Booklist as “poignant, powerful, and urgent.”

Karen’s work has been honored by a National Endowment for the Arts literature fellowship, a Vermont Studio Center Fellowship, and an Artist Opportunity Grant from the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council. She is a 2023 recipient of an Artist Opportunity Grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts. Her poetry is published in journals such as The London Magazine, Poetry Northwest, The Oxonian Review, and Australian Book Review.

She’s read at venues including Rice University, Saint Vincent College, and the Tucson Festival of Books, and recently served as a Season 18 AWP Writer to Writer Mentor. A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Karen freelances as a book reviewer.

Recent Work

Read a Poetry Northwest interview on Danika Stegeman’s Ablation.

Book News

Fabulosa forthcoming in 2024 from JackLeg Press.

ARIZONA BOOKSELLERS: Bright Side Bookshop | Changing Hands
Palabras Bilingual Bookstore | Peregrine Book Company | Stacks Book Club

PRE-ORDER: Open Books | Bookshop | Barnes & Noble | Amazon

REVIEWERS: request via Edelweiss

2024
EVENTS

1/

Spring Poetry Series

3/26/24, 4:00 p.m. MST
JackLeg Press | Flyer
w/ Emma Bolden, Angie Estes, Mamie Morgan

2/

April Abundance

Hundred Pitchers of Honey
4/11/24, 4:30 p.m. MST
Register for Zoom | Flyer
w/ Ashley Elizabeth, Melissa Fite Johnson, Joseph Lezza, Leah Umansky

3/

A Notebooks Reading

4/16/24 4:30 p.m. MST
Virtual Fundraiser
w/ The Notebooks Collective

4/

The Bridges Series

4/17/24 12:30-1:45 p.m.
PVCC, Phoenix, AZ
w/ Sharon Suzuki-Martinez

5/

Excited Utterance

6/5/24, 6:00 p.m. MST
Quarterly Reading Series
Remote via StreamYard
w/ Larry O. Dean, T.R. Hummer

6/

Tucson Arts
Poetry Series

6/22/24, 3:30-5:00 p.m.
Tucson Desert Art Museum
w/ Sharon Suzuki-Martinez

7/

First Fridays Poetry

7/5/24, 6:00 p.m.
Changing Hands Bookstore
Tempe, Arizona

8/

In Conversation

8/20/24, 7:30 p.m. EST
The Notebooks Collective
Virtual Details to Come
w/ Danika Stegeman

Contact