Remember to 'Mine for the details'

"As a kid, I liked to write, but I didn't think that was a viable career choice.  My dream, actually, was to be a white girl rapper and join Salt-N-Pepa – which obviously was a much more viable career choice."  -  Abbott Kahler

Born in Philadelphia in January of 1973, Kahler -- who also writes as Karen Abbott -- has authored several historical nonfiction bestsellers, including Sin in the Second City and Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy.   Her newest book (published in 2024) is the novel Where You End.

Starting her writing career in college, she chose journalism as her focus, first writing for newspapers and magazines in the Philadelphia area.  That led to her interest in writing about history and historical events and ultimately to writing Sin in the Second City, set in Chicago in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries.            While she now resides in New York City, where she is working on more books, she continues to write journalistically as a contributor to Smithsonian Magazine, the New York Times, The New Yorker and the Wall Street Journal.

“I think the most important thing journalism taught me is to mine for details,” she said.  “The details are key. You can't try to be funny or strange or poignant; you have to let the details be funny or strange or poignant for you.”