Karen Jean Matsko Hood is the Author and writer of many adult and children’s cookbooks. This writer also composes books for children and adults along with playwrights and is an avid screenwriter and poetess. This cook is also known as Karen jean hood or karenhood. This cook is an award winning writer and screenwriter

Karen Jean Matsko Hood began her professional writing career later in life than she expected. She is now a prolific writer of fiction, non-fiction and poetry for adults and children. Hood’s first books of poetry present a distinctive combination of themes and poetic formats. Both her fiction and non-fiction exhibit a unique voice of compassion and purpose. Hood’s writing is strong-minded yet lyrical. She is a meticulous wordsmith and writes with passion. Her blend of traditionalism and modernism brings a current freshness and uniqueness to her poetic voice. She is versatile in her writing style and deals with a wide range of themes and topics. Her writing has been published in a myriad of magazines and publications and on an international level.

            Hood’s writing reminds us of the importance of our link with nature and the environment in our daily lives. Demonstrating common crises essential to our core, her poetry also voices outrage at social injustices and inequalities. The reoccurring theme in Hood’s non-fiction is providing a voice for those whose struggles are otherwise ignored. Hood’s poetry brings poignancy to the most hopeless of situations. She is optimistic in her quest for dignity and social justice. Hood also writes about personal and spiritual themes and is a passionate feminist and an ardently active child’s rights advocate. She writes with a proud regionalism, yet expands her writing to international concerns. Hood reveals her twin hearts in her writing; one is in awe of the beauty of life and nature, while the other struggles with social injustice and inequity.

        Hood was born and raised in Great Falls, Montana. She attended the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University, in Minnesota. She received a B.S. Degree in Natural Science and minored in both psychology and secondary education from the college of St. Benedict. After graduating, Karen and her husband taught science and math on the island of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Hood also completed postgraduate classes at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa. She has also completed post-graduate classes at North Idaho College in Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho. In May 2001, she completed her Master’s Degree at Gonzaga University, in Spokane, Washington and is currently looking to complete her Ph.D. in Leadership Studies at Gonzaga University.

        With her husband, ten children and foster children, Hood currently resides in Greenacres, Washington. Her interests include writing, researching, teaching, and volunteering as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) in the Spokane Juvenile Justice System for abused and neglected children. Hood also is a literary advocate for youth and adults. Her hobbies include cooking, baking, photography, raising Icelandic horses and Icelandic sheepdogs, indoor and outdoor gardening and cultivating unusual flowering plants and orchids. Hood also enjoys observing hummingbirds and other bird-watching activities. She demonstrates a passionate appreciation of nature and the environment.