Karen Essex
Bestselling author. Screenwriter. Speaker on women, history, art, power, and reinvention.
Karen Essex is the national and international bestselling author of acclaimed novels that bring history’s most formidable women to life. Her work spans Renaissance courts, ancient empires, wartime Europe, and a daring new dystopian world where beauty is law and fashion is power. She also speaks to literary, cultural, academic, and private audiences across the country.
The Empress’s Cape
Book One of The Silk Rebellion • An epic dystopian romantasy • Coming January 10, 2027
What if Kleopatra had defeated Rome? In the empire that rose from her victory, beauty became law, fashion became power, and a vast digital Loom learned to govern desire itself. One gifted designer is about to discover that the most dangerous weapon in the empire may be the one she creates.
Available now
Renaissance Rivals
The standalone sequel to the award-winning international bestseller Leonardo’s Swans.
Isabella d’Este and Lucrezia Borgia meet in a contest of beauty, ambition, political cunning, and survival at the most dangerous courts of Renaissance Italy.
Run, Darling
Three sisters. One war. A harrowing escape.
Before they became international symbols of glamour, the Gabor sisters were young women struggling to survive Nazi-occupied Europe. Run, Darling tells the astonishing story behind their reinvention and the courage that made it possible.
Illustrated Keynotes and Private Cultural Salons
Karen Essex brings history’s hidden women, dangerous rivalries, stolen art, survival, reinvention, and soft power vividly to life through rich visual storytelling and lively cultural insight.
Popular programs explore Run, Darling and the Gabor sisters’ escape from Nazi-occupied Europe, Renaissance rivalries, Kleopatra’s secret weapons, stolen art, and the women concealed within history’s grand narratives.
Signed Books, Gifts, and Merchandise
Shop signed books directly from Karen, discover special editions, gifts, and merchandise, and arrange book orders for clubs, salons, and speaking events.
History. Sex. Power.
About Karen Essex
Karen Essex is a national and international bestselling author whose historical novels foreground the women who shaped empires, art, and cultural memory. A prolific screenwriter, she co-wrote the pilot adaptation of her Kleopatra novels for Netflix and has written for major studios, networks, and production companies. Her books have been published in twenty-nine languages, and she lectures regularly to literary, cultural, academic, and private audiences.
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