Karen Harris has taught poetry in public schools as a high school English teacher for about sixteen years. As part of poet Robert Pinsky's Favorite Poems Project, she also trains English teachers interested in learning new ways to incorporate poetry into their curricula. She has also taught beginning teachers at Boston University's School of Education, where she is pursuing a doctoral degree in Education.

Karen is keenly interested in the intersection of literature and spirituality, especially as it regards teenagers' development of compassion toward self and others. She currently teaches at School-Within-a-School, an alternative democratic community of students and teachers that is a part of Brookline High School in Massachusetts.

In addition to literature, Karen is passionate about music; she sings, writes songs, and plays guitar for the Boston-based band Edith. The band has produced two critically acclaimed CDs.

Married to artist Morgan Cohen, Karen also loves being a mom to their two kids, Abby and Emmet. They live outside Boston, where they worship by reading spiritual texts (including poems, of course!) with their kids, going on lots of hikes, and sporadically attending a couple of different Unitarian churches and a Quaker Meeting.