Karl Beckstrand

Former media professor Karl Beckstrand is the bestselling author-illustrator of 50+ cross-cultural titles (reviews by Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, The Horn Book, and School Library Journal). Raised in San Jose, California, he’s lived abroad and interned for a Massachusetts publisher and for Congress in D.C. He earned a B.A. in journalism, an M.A. in international relations & conflict resolution, and a film/broadcast certificate. For more than a decade he taught media in a state college and English to immigrants in California and Utah. He’s been a technical recruiter in Silicon Valley, a Stanford Hospital chaplain, a Spanish interpreter for Angel Flight (aviator nonprofit), and a rock band front man. Since 2004, he has run Premio Publishing. He’s won multiple publishing awards, including a 2025 Global Book Award for nonfiction and a 2016 International Book award for his Y.A. western survival thriller, To Swallow the Earth.