Karen Autio

When Karen Autio asked her Finnish-Canadian grandparents to record their life stories, she was given a glimpse of her grandmother's brave yet mysterious battle against tuberculosis as a young mother. The idea for Saara's Passage took tangible shape after Karen read letters written by her grandmother to her infant daughter, Karen's mother, letters that were discovered after her grandmother's death. Saara's Passage is a sequel to Second Watch (Sono Nis Press, 2005), Karen's historical novel...See more

When Karen Autio asked her Finnish-Canadian grandparents to record their life stories, she was given a glimpse of her grandmother's brave yet mysterious battle against tuberculosis as a young mother. The idea for Saara's Passage took tangible shape after Karen read letters written by her grandmother to her infant daughter, Karen's mother, letters that were discovered after her grandmother's death. Saara's Passage is a sequel to Second Watch (Sono Nis Press, 2005), Karen's historical novel inspired by the tale of a silver spoon from her grandmother and the wreck of the Empress of Ireland steamship in 1914. Second Watch was nominated for the Chocolate Lily Award and has been enthusiastically received by children, teachers, reviewers, and parents. Like many Canadians of Finnish descent, Karen grew up in the Thunder Bay area. She now lives in Kelowna, British Columbia, with her husband and two children See less