Karen Olsson on Writing About the Endangered Species of South Texas

Karen Olsson, a novelist based in Austin, draws on her journalism background to create sophisticated and perspective-driven fiction. Her first novel, Waterloo, provides a nuanced view of the political scene in Austin, featuring well-drawn characters such as political reporter Nick Lasseter and newly elected conservative state assemblywoman Beverly Flintic. Waterloo was a runner-up for the 2006 PEN/Hemingway award for first novel and remains relevant even twenty years later.

Olsson's second novel, All the Houses (2015), explores a father-daughter relationship set against the backdrop of the Iran-Contra scandal, portraying the complexities of Washingtonian political and foreign policy. Her latest work, Dear Thorns, delves into South Texas history and development, touching on oil and gas industries, border immigration issues, species loss, and the story of a biologist who becomes attracted to a much younger intern at a wildlife refuge that houses ocelots. All Thorns will be featured at the Texas Book Festival on November 15.

The novel's inspiration came from Olsson's 1995 reporting of a magazine story in the Rio Grande Valley, where she discovered the ocelot at the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge near Alamo, Texas. Though the novel didn't initially center around the ocelot, the experience sparked thoughts about the personal toll of witnessing destruction, eventually leading to the creation of a biologist-driven narrative.

Olsson named the novel Dear Thorns due to the South Texas brush country's thornscrub habitat, which she initially titled "thornscrub." The protagonist, Lora, is a forty-something ocelot biologist at a refuge in South Texas. Despite her pride in independence, Lora grapples with a sense of loneliness and unfulfilled desires, particularly concerning the potential extinction of ocelots. To convey Lora's loneliness, Olsson employed a close third-person narrative, allowing readers to observe Lora from a distance.

The novel's setting, an isolated refuge adorned with thorny trees and bushes, is based on Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, known for its small ocelot population. Olsson's research into the refuge and ocelots informed the accurate portrayal of the environment and wildlife monitoring practices in the novel. However, she ensured that Lora's experiences and the refuge's layout didn't closely mirror the actual Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, avoiding any potential misconception among visitors.