Karen Russell is an American novelist and short story writer. Her debut novel, Swamplandia!, was a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. In 2009, the National Book Foundation named Russell a "5 under 35" honoree. She was also the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "Genius Grant" in 2013.

Russell graduated from Columbia University's MFA program in 2006. Her stories have been featured in The Best American Short Stories, Conjunctions, Granta, The New Yorker, Oxford American, and Zoetrope. Her first book of short stories, St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, was published in September 2006. In June 2010, she was named a New Yorker "20 Under 40" honoree. She lives in Washington Heights, New York.