Karen Hammond

Karen Hammond is an experienced freelance writer whose work has appeared in leading national and international magazines, including American Lawyer, American Profile, Family Circle, Runners’ World, Wine Enthusiast, Wine Spectator, and many others, and newspapers including the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Boston Globe, Columbus Dispatch, Miami Herald, and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Her poetry has been published in literary journals, including The Montserrat Review, reprinted in anthologies, and won awards. Hammond has also contributed articles to alumni magazines, written chapters on diverse topics for several books, and provided articles for magazines promoting the state of Maine. She is happy to supply a more complete list of publications on request.

Among several honors, Hammond received the Outstanding Service Feature Article of the Year Award from the American Society of Journalists and Authors for an article on aging, the Jerry Morris Master Writer Award for an article on myths and realities surrounding the first Thanksgiving, a Travel-Media award for an article on Quebec City, and the Outstanding Poem of the Year Award from Perceptions literary magazine.

A graduate of the University of New Hampshire, Hammond earned a master’s degree from Binghamton University in New York. For a period of about ten years, she taught freelance magazine writing, journalism, and creative nonfiction as an adjunct faculty member at Binghamton. For the past twenty years, she also taught accredited online college courses in both fiction and nonfiction magazine writing. Many of her university and online students have gone on to successful writing careers of their own.

A foodie since childhood, Hammond has also been the restaurant reviewer for two magazines, including a New York State publication, Broome County Images, for which she ultimately became editor-in-chief. In addition to writing, she's an experienced editor and writing mentor and a public speaker who is happy to speak to audiences on a variety of topics ranging from New England poets to Maine history.

Hammond is also the author of Backroads & Byways of New England: Drives, Day Trips & Weekend Excursions.