Karen Wright.

When we moved to Dorset in 1999 we immediately fell in love with our surroundings, finding ourselves in a small village with no street lights, a stream at the bottom of the garden and rolling hills and a deserted railway line at the end of the lane.
Here is a landscape that cannot fail to fill you with inspiration, and it is the setting for The Abbotsbury series of children's books that I am writing, and many of my short stories and poems.
I love to explore along the Jurassic coast, but also to find hidden routes and places inland, many of which appear in my books.
My son is autistic and this has led me to experience the world from another perspective and to advocate for those children and young people with additional needs, including setting up the charity ASCape. Struck by the lack of beautiful books for children with additional needs that express their experiences and passions I started writing the Someone Like Me Series. The first three books cover autism, adoption and school refusal. 

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Publications.

In 2019 I was a winner of the Dorset Writer's prize and published in Dorset Shorts. I have had flash fiction pieces published in Dorset Voices by Roving Press 2012, Narrative Threads by Bridport Story Traders 2015 and This Little World. Stories from Dorset Writers, with Dorset Writers Network 2015. I  have also had articles published  in Adoption Today Magazine and am a contributor to Your Autism Magazine. 
In 2019 I was shortlisted for the Yeovil Prize in the Writing Without Restrictions category and longlisted in the National Literary Trust's 2017 Short Story Prize.
In 2020 I started writing a book with parents of autistic children in ASCape in Bridport and we are just about to launch this book later in 2023. 
Some of my recent poems are included in an anthology Green Words, published by Salt House Press June 2023.

Projects.

I am very excited that Someone Like Me: Dylan's Story is about to be published by Honeybee Books in 2023. This is the first, I hope, of a series of books about children with additional needs, whose stories are not always told in an accessible way. Dylan, who is 8, tells us how he found out that he had autism and what he learns about it, finally  finding a friend who is also autistic. The second book in the series is about Lottie, a 10 year old who is adopted and finds that she gets angry very easily.
I am currently working on the second draft of Catalunya, a dystopian Young Adult book, which will be the first in a trilogy.
I am also enjoying researching for a third book in the Abbotsbury Series for 8 -11 year- olds which is set in the Civil War, and includes the dramatic sieges of Lyme Regis and Abbotsbury.