Debra Carlson explores how cultures collide, weave, and evolve. Her novels, short stories, and essays explore questions of human longing and belonging. Her work has appeared in mothering, White Enso, and the “Sisters Singing” essay collection.
Debra has worked as a lifeguard, a freelance writer, a foreign investment liaison for Mitsubishi Oil Company, an international politics and economics conference organizer, and a high school teacher of English and Japanese.
Born in Connecticut, Debra has lived in the Seattle area for over twenty-five years, after a child and young adulthood moving between the United States, Japan, England and West Germany. She loves traveling, art, music, reading, swimming, meditation, and tending beehives. She is the mom of two amazing young men, and relishes life with her partner, David Blatner.
Grants and Awards
2018 PNWA Conference First Place Winner, Young Adult category: “Indra’s Net” [Link]
2015 PNWA Conference Second Place Winner, Short Story category: “Story Knife” [Link]
2010 PNWA Third Place Winner, Historical Fiction category: “Shakuhachi”
2008 Seattle Artist Trust Centrum Residency Grant [Link]
