Karen Olsson

Background

Karen Olsson was born in December 1972 in the United States.

Education

Karen graduated from Harvard University with a degree in mathematics.

Career

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.

Her first novel, Waterloo, was published in 2005. It 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. Her second novel, All the Houses, was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 2015. Set in Washington, D.C., it is narrated by the middle daughter of a family that has come undone in the wake of the Iran-contra scandal. Olsson's most recent work, The Weil Conjectures, was published in July 2019. It combines a memoir of her college years with a biography of mathematician André Weil.

Achievements

• Karen Olsson is a prolific writer. Her best known work is the novel Waterloo, which was a runner-up for the 2006 PEN/Hemingway Award for First Fiction.

Works

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• book

  • The Weil Conjectures: On Math and the Pursuit of the Unknown

    (It tells the story of the brilliant Weil siblings - Simon...)

    2019
  • Waterloo

    (Nick Lasseter's boss is talking about his job performance...)

    2005
  • All the Houses

    (After her father has a heart attack and subsequent surger...)

    2015