On Writing
I’ve never been alone, because I’ve always had a book. Characters are good company — they should leap off the page. I want you to remember my characters.
Fiction
My heart is in the novel. I’ve been writing original fiction since the seventh grade, when I realized that if I waited until I was a “good enough” writer to write a story, I’d be waiting forever. So I turned on the desktop and the rest is history.
My drug of choice is fantasy. I build immersive, expansive, nuanced secondary worlds driven by cutthroat people with competing agendas, willing to do whatever it takes to achieve those conflicting goals. I have a lot to say about being human (especially in today’s world) in the way my characters navigate love, belonging, responsibility, and conflict as the world shifts seismically around them.
What makes my work unique is the absence of a magic system. Is fantasy without magic still fantasy? You bet! I kept all the best elements of the genre and breathed new life into them — think the brutal, backstabbing scheming and breakneck sword fighting of Game of Thrones or Harrow the Ninth meets the tyranny of Mistborn and the intrigue of The Will of the Many in the broken world of Breath of the Wild. What will you do where’s no magic sword or dagger or inborn magical talent coming to save you, hero?
I like imagery. I like sharp dialogue. I want you to feel warm fuzzies when you read a celebration scene and I want you to feel like you’re being emotionally skinned when you read the gruesome ones.
A few of my favorite authors include, in no particular order, Tamsyn Muir (Gideon the Ninth, etc.), R. F. Kuang (The Poppy War, Babel), Gabriella Romero Lacruz (The Sun and the Void), Ursula K. LeGuin (The Dispossessed, the Earthsea cycle), Samantha Shannon (Priory of the Orange Tree), and James Islington (The Will of the Many). Other titles I adore include Brave New World (Huxley), Animal Farm (Orwell), and the works of Jack London and James Joyce.
I am increasingly interested in short stories, but I don’t have anything ready to share yet in that department.
Outside the world of the written word, I love the Legend of Zelda (Breath of the Wild and Twilight Princess are in the fabric of my soul) and Okami (if you cut open my brain, you’d see Shiranui). I learned how to play DnD from Critical Role and run a campaign for my fellow graduate students (our group is called PhDnD — get it?). These have a clear influence on my work.
Nonfiction
In nonfiction I gravitate toward the scientific. Big surprise, right? Favorites in these categories include Braiding Sweetgrass and The Serviceberry (Robin Wall Kimmerer), Poverty by America (Matthew Desmond), and An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States (Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz). I think everyone should read these.
I do not currently write nonfiction, but I toy with the idea of ecologically-minded personal essays. If past lives exist, I’m pretty sure I was a saber-tooth cat at some point.
procrastinating housework concept art for WHILE I AM ALIVE
AWP 2025!
On Ecology & Other Science
I am pursuing a PhD in Ecology and Evolution with Luis Disease & Population Ecology Lab at the University of Montana. My dissertation investigates the mechanisms driving zoonotic disease, using the Sin Nombre Hantavirus—deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) model system. I am broadly interested in zoonotic diseases and spillover; wildlife diseases; and community ecology, particularly species interactions.
As a research assistant, I teach sciences at the undergraduate level. I have previously worked as a research assistant to the Dwivedi Forest Sustainability Lab (formerly at UGA and now at Clemson) and as park ranger in Vogel State Park (best job ever). I am member of the Montana chapter of the Wildlife Society.
The core of my work focuses on disease ecology, but in my free time I love to read about paleontology and deep time, geology, evolutionary biology, climatology, astrophysics, and astrobiology. I’m madly in love with the Earth and all her forms of life, except maybe crocodilians, which horrify me on a primordial level.
You can view my academic profile and research publications on ResearchGate, my University of Montana E&E page, or below.
For academic inquiries, please email ckarnatz@umontana.edu
Education
Master of Science, Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia (2021)
Bachelor of Arts, English/Creative Writing, Georgia College & State University (2018)
Publications
Caroline Karnatz, Parag Kadam, Healy Hamilton, Regan Smyth, Ranjit Bawa, and Puneet Dwivedi. 2023. Impacts of Sustainable Forestry Initiative fiber sourcing on the forestry best management practices and biodiversity conservation in the SE United States. Trees, Forests and People. Vol. 11 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tfp.2022.100349
Kadam, Parag., Puneet, Dwivedi. and Caroline Karnatz. 2021. Mapping convergence of sustainable forest management systems: Comparing three protocols and two certification schemes for ascertaining the trends in global forest governance. Forest Policy and Economics. Vol. 13 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2021.102614
Caroline Karnatz, Parag Kadam, Alexander Pfeuffer, and Puneet Dwivedi. 2021. The portrayal of forest certification in national and state newspapers of the United States,
Forest Policy and Economics 130. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2021.102531
On Hobbies & Other Passions
If you’ve read this far, you can probably guess the rest of my passions.
I’ve never met a National Park/Forest/Wildlife Preserve/Grassland/Wilderness Area/etc that I didn’t love down to the core of my soul. I highly recommend huffing the trees after it rains. Dog optional, but encouraged.
Hunting, foraging, and fishing are sacred to me. I harvest only what I need, with love and respect to the land, plants, and animals, and waste nothing. This ethos is the soul of my work.
I love language and travel! Language is a pillar of culture and therefore characterization and worldbuilding. I had the very good fortunate to spend a summer abroad in Scotland, studying creative writing and Scottish Gaelic (Bha mi a’ ionnsachadh ann an Sruighlea). I currently speak or study six languages — English, Spanish, Japanese, Scottish Gaelic, Bitterroot Salish, and Mandarin — and I’d love to learn another six.
My perfect and beloved Bennett, the best boy who was ever a boy, my sunshine, my sweet stinky baby. Bark box, excavator extraordinaire, walking antidepressant, cleaner of dinner plates. I have to work hard so I can buy him a house with a big yard.