Karol Lagodzki is an exophonic, English-language author of fiction. His stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Invisible City, Storm Cellar, Asimov’s, and elsewhere, and he has won Panel Magazine’s Ruritania Prize. His first full-length book, Controlled Conversations, was a finalist for the 2025 PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel.

He holds an MFA in creative writing, buys more books than he can read or afford—usually novels and short story collections, though he’s been known to pick up an odd book of poetry or an accessible science book—and gives back to the literary community by serving as a reader for literary journals. In some of his work, Karol draws on his memories of growing up in autocratic, Soviet-controlled Poland.

Karol lives halfway down a Southern Indiana ravine with his wonderful family, a scurry of squirrels, a passel of possums, a gaze of raccoons, a descent of woodpeckers, and a large dog.