About Karen Campbell<\/p>\n
Karen Campbell is originally from Glasgow but now lives in southwest Scotland. She graduated with distinction from Glasgow University\u2019s Creative Writing Masters and won an SAC New Writers Award and a Creative Scotland Bursary. Before turning to writing, she was a police officer in Glasgow, then press officer with Glasgow City Council. She also tutors in creative writing and was Writer in Residence at Dumfries & Galloway Council during the Covid-19 pandemic. <\/p>\n
Her first four novels focus on life behind the police uniform. This disconnect between what we see on the surface and the reality underneath runs through much of her work, with Karen going on to write novels such as THIS IS WHERE I AM (Bloomsbury, 2013), which was a Radio 4 Book at Bedtime.\u00a0 Her eighth novel PAPER CUP (Canongate, 2022) was a Waterstone\u2019s Scottish Book of the Month and won the 2023 Blairgowrie Bookmark Prize. Karen\u2019s appeared on Radio 4 Women\u2019s Hour, Radio 3\u2019s The Verb, Radio Scotland and BBC television\u2019s Big Scottish Book Club. <\/p>\n
Praise for THIS BRIGHT LIFE<\/p>\n
\u2018THIS BRIGHT LIFE is a moving, haunting portrait of childhood and the jagged reflections of one tiny action in the kaleidoscope of humanity. Karen Campbell captures the voice of 12-year-old Gerard with poignant accuracy and her words paint pictures with the touch of an old master. Ultimately life-affirming, this gritty novel will take you to dark places, but it\u2019s one beautiful, uplifting journey.\u2019 \u2013 Janice Hallett\u00a0 <\/p>\n
\u2018I love this story so much. Karen writes with such a rare and deep understanding of people and every word of her stories earns its keep. THIS BRIGHT LIFE is dark, moving and compassionate\u2026 it makes you feel hopeful, like a handrail in the dark. I adore it\u2019 \u2013 Joanna Cannon<\/p>\n
\u2018Karen Campbell finds lives that can fall between the cracks, and holds them up to the light of her clear, compassionate writing. Wee Gerard is yet another one of her brilliant creations \u2013 so real you can hear him breathing, feel his hurt and frustration alongside him.\u2019 \u2013 Kirstin Innes<\/p>\n
\u2018A novel of great empathy and humanity, in which bleakness is offset by optimism, represented by the community that rallies around, the stranger who wants to help and the possibility of redemption.\u2019 \u2013 Alastair Mabbot, The Herald<\/a><\/p>\n \u2018Few write with such compassion and understanding of human nature, which is just one of the reasons her books mean so much to her readers. THIS BRIGHT LIFE looks back to childhood and how decisions made, and resultant events, impact on individuals and those around them. Karen Campbell manages to convey the drama of people\u2019s everyday lives in the most empathetic and beautiful way.\u2019 \u2013 Alastair Braidwood, SNACK Magazine, \u2018Ten Books for 2025\u2019<\/p>\n