Karen Kingsbury is an American Christian novelist born on June 8, 1963, in Fairfax, Virginia. She began her career as a sports writer for the Los Angeles Times and later wrote for the Los Angeles Daily News. Her first book, Missy's Murder (1991), was based on a murder story that she covered in Los Angeles. During this time, she had an article published in People Magazine.

She has written or co-written almost 100 novels or short stories, and as of 2008, had nearly 13 million copies of her novels in print. She is a #1 New York Times and USA Today best-selling novelist, with her last dozen books topping bestseller lists. Some of her novels are being developed into movies by The Hallmark Channel, including The Bridge, A Time to Dance (2015), and Maggie's Christmas Miracle (2017). Her Baxter Family series was adapted into a television series, with Lightworkers Media and Roma Downey having the rights to develop the series.

Kingsbury also engages in public speaking and reaches more than 100,000 people each year through national events. Additionally, she is an adjunct professor of writing at Liberty University.

In 2001, she and her husband, Don, adopted three boys from Haiti, doubling their family in a matter of months. Today, the couple has joined the ranks of empty nesters, living in Tennessee near five of their adult children.