Karen Olsson is an American novelist and journalist. Her first novel, Waterloo (Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 2005), is set in a thinly veiled version of Austin, Texas. The book follows a down-on-his-motivation reporter at an alternative weekly paper as he tries to get over a failed relationship and investigate some irregular goings-on at the state capitol. Writing in The New York Times Book Review, Mark Costello described Waterloo as "a melancholy comedy of Texas politics with great wit and assurance." Her second novel, All the Houses (Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 2015) is set in Washington, D.C., narrated by the middle daughter of a family that has come undone in the wake of the Iran-contra scandal. A former editor of The Texas Observer, Olsson is a contributing editor at Texas Monthly and has written for Slate.com and The New York Times Magazine.
Karen Olsson
Studios
Barnard
Karen Olsson worked in the Barnard studio.
Originally built near MacDowell's Union Street entrance, the Barnard Studio — which was funded by Barnard College music students — was re-located to its current site in 1910. When the small structure was moved, its size was doubled with the addition of a second room. This remodeling, financed by Mrs. Thomas E. Emery of Cincinnati…