Karen smiles at the camera, wearing her Make Peace With Words tee.

About Karen Yin

  • Founder of Conscious Style Guide, Editors of Color, and AP vs. Chicago
  • Author of Whole Whale (Barefoot Books, 2021) and So Not Ghoul (Page Street Kids, 2022)

Winner of the 2017 ACES Robinson Prize for furthering the craft of professional editing, Karen Yin is the creator of Conscious Style Guide, the first website devoted to conscious language, Editors of Color, tools for diversifying your staff and sources, and AP vs. Chicago, a guide for anyone who gives “a dollar sign, ampersand, exclamation point, and pound sign about style.” Conscious Style Guide was named by Poynter as one of the top tools for journalists in 2018.

A copywriter and editor for over two decades, Karen ran the editorial department at advertising agencies, where she performed quality control on campaigns for Disney, DreamWorks, Fox, Pixar, Universal, and Warner Bros., and now serves clients in mass media, education, and energy. She was the style columnist for Copyediting and has given presentations on compassionate, empowering, and inclusive language.

Karen received the 2018 Magnificent Seven Star Award from Toastmasters for excellence in public relations and social media marketing and was awarded fellowships in the 2018 AAJA Catalyst: Elevating Media Founders of Color entrepreneurship program and the 2019 StartingBloc Los Angeles Institute for cultivating leadership.

An award-winning fiction writer, Karen is a proud member of the Authors Guild, the Dramatists Guild, and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Acclaim for her fiction includes a Lambda Literary Fellowship (LGBTQ+), a Table 4 Writers Foundation grant, an SCBWI Nonfiction Grant and selection of her flash fiction by the L.A. Public Library for its permanent collection and Short Story Portal.

Karen’s debut picture book, Whole Whale, a story about making space, will be released in May 2021 by Barefoot Books, with award-winning illustrator Nelleke Verhoeff on board. Her second picture book, So Not Ghoul, will be published by Page Street Kids in fall 2022.

Karen is represented by:

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  • To stay in touch with Karen’s publishing career, subscribe to the Purposeful Prose Newsletter (see sidebar on right).
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FOUNDER OF

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MEMBER OF

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