Karen Brough

Karen has always written and would happily keep doing it if nobody ever read a word. These days she writes picture books for children, gift books for adults, and faith-based non-fiction, which is either range or an inability to choose, depending on who you ask.

Her picture book 'I Can't Believe They're Gone' has sold 23,000+ copies worldwide, been translated into four languages, and won the Reader's Favorite Gold Medal and the Firebird Book Award. It's endorsed by Dianne McKissock OAM, co-founder of the National Centre for Childhood Grief.

Her latest, 'The Coast Is Clear,' helps busy hearts and minds settle at bedtime without turning it into a marathon read, and comes with a free soundscape. Most of Karen's stories start in real life: hers, her children's, and the everyday moments most people walk straight past.

She's also the author of the 'Be Held By Him' series, a completed six-book collection and a finalist for both the Montaigne Medal and the Eric Hoffer Award. The series grew out of autoimmune illness and years of uncertain diagnoses, and so did Karen's beginnings as an author. It's written for anyone wanting to encounter God's hand on the hard but rich road of health challenges.

She grew up in a small village in Melbourne, Victoria, and somewhere between a string of odd jobs and running a family business with her husband Craig, became an author too.

These days she lives on a semi-rural property on the Peninsula with Craig and their three teen and young adult children. In warmer months you'll find her in the water or puzzling up a storm; in cooler ones, baking, and hiding vegetables in the recipes, much to her children's disgust. (Secretly, they love it.) The family groodle, Gracie, is under strict instructions to stay away from tissue boxes, birds, and slow-moving rabbits. A creamy dairy-free gelato recipe still eludes Karen, but it doesn't stop her trying.