Karen Lavut, author of Simple Things: The Story of a Friendship, a memoir of Christiana Pflug, was born in South Africa and then emigrated to England; she came to Canada in 1969. Lavut has worked in various capacities, including as a research assistant and copy editor. The author of an internationally published children’s book and (with Martin Lavut) an award-winning children’s audiotape, she lives in Toronto with her husband, Martin Lavut, and her daughters, Kate and Marinda, where she writes, teaches writing, and plays the clarinet.