Karen Halvorsen Schreck is the author of the Young Adult novel Dream Journal (Hyperion), a 2006 Young Adult BookSense Pick, and the award-winning children’s book Lucy’s Family Tree (Tilbury House). Her short stories and articles have appeared in Literal Latté, Other Voices, Image, as well as other literary journals and magazines, and have received various awards, including a Pushcart Prize, an Illinois State Arts Council Grant, and in 2008, first prize awards for memoir and devotional magazine writing from the Evangelical Press Association. Karen received her doctorate in English and Creative from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She teaches writing and literature, works as a freelance writer and editor, and lives with her husband, the photographer Greg Halvorsen Schreck, and their two children in Wheaton, Illinois.