Karen Howes is an award-winning playwright and lyricist whose work explores our ongoing
journey to understand the world and our place within it. Her plays have been produced across the
country and published in distinguished anthologies, including the creative writing text Four
Genres in Brief. She is a two-time recipient of the Science-Driven Play Award and winner of the
Maxim Mazumdar New Play Prize, the Women’s Playwright Initiative, and the Bennett Prize for
Best Comedy, among other honors.

Karen holds degrees in Philosophy and Writing for the Performing Arts and has taught more than
50 college courses in theatre, literature, and writing. Her career in arts and education has also
included theatre outreach work with the William Inge Center and the Kennedy Center, as well as
serving as founder and artistic director of the Young Actors Ensemble. Across her work as a
writer, educator, and arts leader, she has maintained a longstanding commitment to fostering
creativity, intellectual curiosity, and independent thought.

She sees FAIR in the Arts as an invaluable professional community where artists can create,
explore, challenge, and take risks without fear of censorship, cancellation, or ideological
judgment—and where a shared commitment to artistic freedom can lead to genuine
collaboration, opportunity, and support for the work itself.