Karen Pittelman is the author of two non-fiction books about social justice philanthropy, Classified: How to Stop Hiding Your Privilege and Use It for Social Change and Creating Change Through Family Philanthropy, with co-author Alison Goldberg, both from Soft Skull Press for the organization Resource Generation.
Her poetry has been published in journals including Breakwater Review, Bodega, Sunday Salon, Keyhole, Machine Dreams, New World Writing, The Pinch, and New South.
She is also a singer-songwriter for the queer country band Karen & the Sorrows, and her most recent album, Guaranteed Broken Heart, was featured in Rolling Stone, The AV Club, and No Depression which said, “Like Gram Parsons, Pittelman peels away the superficiality that much of country music has embraced and looks deep into its soul, its history, and its stories and makes it all her own….You do not want to miss this album.”
For the last 10 years, she has also worked to help build a growing queer country community, running the Gay Ole Opry Festival and the Queer Country Quarterly, and creating space for people who love country music even if country music doesn’t always love them back.
She co-founded Chahara Foundation and The Trans Justice Funding Project, and tends to rant a lot about philanthropy.
Lately, she has also been ranting about country music.
She lives in Brooklyn where she works as a writing coach.