Karen Shasha was born in Wilmington, Delaware, grew up in Boston and currently lives in New York City. She studied philosophy, history of art and sculpture at Yale University and has an MA in photography from New York University and the International Center of Photography graduate program.  She has taught at NYU and has been a guest lecturer at the New School, Connecticut College, and Temple University. She works with photographs, which she shows regularly, and storytelling in the form of songs she records and performs as well as making artist books. Her work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the International Center of Photography, the Fogg Art Museum and the Yale University Art of the Book Collection.  She also has work in the Maison Européène de la Photographie, the Pompidou Center and the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.