Kara Panzer is a writer based in New York City. Her essays have appeared in Fortune, Insider, Yahoo! and elsewhere. She writes about things like what makes community college great, marathon non-training plans, and the time a stranger threw up on her jacket at her favorite bar.

She is currently revising a speculative horror novel as well as a memoir, which she workshopped at The Writer’s Hotel in 2021 and 2022, respectively. In fall 2022, she spent time at the Rockvale Writers’ Colony, where she was spooked by her own material because it is too dark and violent very productive.

She holds a B.S. in foreign service from Georgetown University. At Georgetown, she wrote a paper on the looming public health threat of what were then called electronic nicotine delivery systems (AKA vapes). If more people read her writing, the rise of vaping and many other cultural tragedies could likely have been prevented.