Karen Dukess is the author of The Last Book Party (her debut novel), coming from Henry Holt on July 9, 2019. She has been a tour guide in the former Soviet Union, a newspaper reporter in Florida, a magazine publisher in Russia and, for nearly a decade, a speechwriter on gender equality for the United Nations Development Programme. She has blogged on parenting for The Huffington Post and written book reviews for USA Today. She lives with her family near New York City and spends part of every summer in Truro on Cape Cod.