Karen Stabiner writes about people who push boundaries on every front and somehow maintain their sense of humor – including herself.
about karen
Her essays appear in The Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times, often from her perch at the end of the bar, enjoying dinner for one.
She has been a journalist since she joined her high school newspaper, and found out that she had no chance of being named editor because she was a girl. Karen left that attitude and her midwestern mid-century upbringing behind to become an author, journalist, and adjunct professor at the Columbia University graduate school of journalism. While the dignified label for what she does is narrative non-fiction, or immersion journalism, she prefers to think of herself as a fly on the wall, looking for stories in what she observes.
Her books include Generation Chef, which follows a young chef who opens his first restaurant; To Dance with the Devil: The New War on Breast Cancer, a New York Times Notable Book; and her personal favorite, the memoir My Girl: Adventures with a Teen in Training. She has also written two cookbooks and two novels.
Karen's articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Eater LA, Columbia Journalism Review, Gourmet (a James Beard award finalist), Saveur, and other national publications. She was for three years the west coast editor of The Counter, a nonprofit digital newsroom, until its untimely demise in May, 2022. Her restaurant coverage there anchored a 2021 SABEW award for general excellence.
She writes about restaurants not as a trend-chaser but as a loyal regular. They are, for her, an essential "third place," a space that is not home, not work, but provides a much-needed sense of community.
Second Helpings
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