Karen A. Chase

Karen A. Chase is an author, speaker, and brand designer whose career spans American history, entrepreneurship, and visual storytelling. For nearly three decades, Chase has worked as a professional designer, creating brands for national and international organizations, non-profits, and authors. After more than ten years with advertising agencies and design studios as a graphic designer, she launched her own branding and design studio. She also founded 224Pages, an independent publishing house.

Chase first gained recognition as an author with her travel memoir, "Bonjour 40: A Paris Travel Log," which received multiple independent publishing awards. She later focused on historical fiction, producing the novel "Carrying Independence," the first in a three-part Founding-Documents Series centered on the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Her Revolutionary War novel was ranked among the Top 100 Indie Books, was a Library of Virginia Award nominee, a two-time Eric Hoffer Indie Book winner, and a semi-finalist in the Screencraft Cinematic Book competition. Chase has served as a Creative Writing Visiting Scholar with the American Antiquarian Society and as a fellow with the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, with residency at the Library of Virginia.

Chase's work spans multiple genres. She released a food-themed short story with recipes, "Mary Angela's Kitchen," and published the workbook "Brand the Author (Not the Book)," which integrates her expertise in marketing and publishing. She also published "The Travel Journal of Eliza House Trist, 1783–84," a transcription of a journal kept by a woman who traveled west for Thomas Jefferson. Chase's perspective integrates American independence, design, marketing, and entrepreneurship to create enduring brands.

As a speaker, Chase draws on her experience in historical fiction, branding, and publishing. Her award-winning independent publications, focusing on America's founding and brand development, have led to speaking engagements for historical, corporate, and trade audiences in the United States and Canada, both virtually and in person. She is a part-time onboard history lecturer with American Cruise Lines, sailing on the East Coast and the Chesapeake. Chase is a keynote speaker on topics such as "Revolutionize Your Brand," "Secure Your Independence," and "Travel Like Historical Novelists." She is a member of James River Writers, the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Historical Novelist Society, the Women's Fiction Writers Association, and the American Revolutionary Round Table.