I've been a full-time fiction writer for 15 years. My short stories have been published in literary journals and I'm a featured reader at public fiction readings. I am also an active member of writers' groups, regularly go to conferences, and for a few hours each day, make a living helping other novelists and memoirists finish their books. Numerous short stories are in process, either in various stages of development from rough draft to revision, or waiting upon the desks of editors of anthologies and journals.
I just finished my first novel, Earth. It's one in a series of four (Earth, Air, Fire, Water) chronicling the life of Pearl Elizabeth Swinton. To work on Earth, I went on a six-week sabbatical for the first draft to a tiny fishing village called Tofino on Canada's West Coast. For the next draft, I found myself in south London, and for the final, I worked out of a gutted mansion in Budapest. Earth has taken me all over the world. It's a literary novel of deep personal importance, and I am now seeking agent representation. Air, the second in the series, is in progress.
Prior to becoming an artist, I spent more than a decade travelling the world as an international journalist, working as an editor and reporter with newspapers and magazines in Tokyo and London, and as a travel writer for a year in Asia. I wrote stories on becak drivers in Indonesia, on island paradises in the Philippines, on kids in juvenile detention in Seattle. I loved this world, but also knew at the age of 29 that I needed to follow my calling to write fiction.
Artist. www.carolineallen.com Several photography and visual art shows in Seattle, including at the Art Institute of Seattle.
Writing teacher/coach for 10 years, assisting hundreds of people from Shanghai to Spokane in unlocking their creativity and telling their stories. I have taught at the CityLit Institute in London, at the Art Institute of Seattle, at the nonprofit artists cooperative SAW, at community colleges in the Seattle area, and independent Art of Storytelling classes in the U.S. and Canada.
A decade of international writing experience, serving as a features editor for a major Tokyo newspaper, a travel writer in Asia, and an editor and journalist for London dailies like the Independent and the Financial Times.
Served in Seattle as an entertainment journalist for the Seattle PI, the Seattle Weekly, and national magazines.
Graduated cum laude from the top journalism school in the U.S., the University of Missouri, School of Journalism.