Writing
"Your strength in words lifts those of us who cannot express in words the emotion we feel. You give us those words to help release what we otherwise keep deeply hidden."— Bridget Horrigan
Nearly a decade of writing about the thing nobody wants to talk about.
It started with Tracy. And never stopped.
Karen Austin has been writing about death, grief, and mourning for nearly a decade. It started when her husband Tracy was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2016 and she began sharing their journey on social media — honestly, vulnerably, and without looking away. The community that gathered around that writing taught her something she has carried ever since: people are desperate for someone to tell the truth about loss. She has been doing that ever since.
Her Substack: None of Us Are Getting Out of Here Alive. What if we stop pretending that we are?
Weekly essays at the intersection of grief, survival, and the strange beautiful act of being alive. Read and subscribe at imkarenaustin.substack.com
Books in progress:
None of Us Are Getting Out of Here Alive: 9 Truths — a grief education framework built on a lifetime of loss and learning.
#NametagsForTracy — a memoir and love story told through the nametags her husband Tracy wore every month of his nine-month journey through pancreatic cancer.
Published:
Contributing author and foreword writer, Lead Like a Woman series (6 volumes, Amazon)
Ghostwriter:
Karen has ghostwritten six books for others. She brings the same precision and voice to other people's stories that she brings to her own.