48 Days to Barbados

Author and artist Karson Brown grew up sailing and living aboard boats in the Pacific Northwest. She turned twenty-one on a fishing vessel in the Bering Sea, and crossed the Atlantic Ocean aboard a thirty-four-foot sailboat during hurricane season before turning thirty. Karson raised her two children along the shores of Vashon Island surrounded by a menagerie of critters. She is a writer, photographer, artist, and lifelong devotee of water. Karson is an alumna of Joyce Maynard’s “Write By The Lake Workshop”, in Guatemala. She currently resides on Alki Beach collecting shells and befriending seagulls. Karson has two short stories in the upcoming Vine Leaves Press 50 Give or Take Anthology, coming out November 2025. Red Fern Press will publish Karson’s debut memoir 48 Days to Barbados May 12, 2026.

Shauna James Ahern is the author of the cookbook, Gluten-Free Girl Everyday, which won a James Beard award for excellence. Her previous books include Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef, named one of the best cookbooks of 2010 by The New York Times, and the food memoir, Gluten-Free Girl. She is also the author, photographer, and head baker at Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef, her much-loved food website, which she creates with her chef husband, Daniel Ahern. Her work has been published or recognized by The New York Times, Gourmet, Bon Appetit, Epicurious, Babble, The Guardian, Gilt Taste, CNN’s Eatocracy, the Food Network, and The Washington Post. Shauna and Daniel, with their two children, live on Vashon Island in Washington State, where they are probably cooking something as you read this.