Karen Elizabeth Sharpe grew up in Central Massachusetts to a family with deep roots in the New Hampshire Lakes Region and the White Mountains. Her maternal line traces its roots, beliefs, and colonist predispositions to some of the earliest white European settlers in the New England area. Her paternal line labored its way out of Ireland and Sweden to land firmly in the US immigrant working class of Massachusetts.

After a series of traumatic life events as a child and teen, Sharpe dropped out of college after one semester. She got married and had two children. With a lot of luck and help from family, she eventually went back to school. She has been a coffee-cart clerk, a babysitter, a divorcee, a journalist and editor, a caterer, a funeral ceremonialist, a professional fundraiser, and an assistant vice president at two universities. She celebrates the healing power of forgiveness in relationships.

Sharpe is a poetry editor at The Worcester Review. Her chapbook, Prayer Can Be Anything is forthcoming in the summer of 2023 (Finishing Line Press). Her poems have or will soon appear in Split Rock Review, Ocean State Review, West Trade Review, Mom Egg Review, and Catalyst, among others.

Her first book, This Late Afternoon (2004, Dunn & Co.), is available in limited numbers. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Karen has been a member of Marge Piercy’s juried poets group and a member of the PoemWorks community in the greater Boston area.