Karen Zelas

Karen Zelas lives in quake-struck Christchurch. She is married with children, grandchildren and a child-substitute: a black miniature poodle. A former psychiatrist and psychotherapist, she took creative writing papers at Canterbury University in preparation for giving up her day job. Since 2004, her poetry has been increasingly widely published within New Zealand and also in Australia. Several anthologies contain her poetry and short fiction. For the last five years, she has been Fiction Editor of "Takahē" literary magazine. She was recently announced the winner of the 2012 IP Picks Best First Book for her first book of poetry, "Night's Glass Table". She is editor of the anthology "Crest to Crest: Impressions of Canterbury, prose and poetry" (Wily Publications, 2009).

Karen’s novel, Past Perfect, was first published in hard copy by Wily Publications in 2010.