In 1903, at the age of twenty, she began to submit her writing to the New York City-based Arabic-language newspaper Al-Hoda (Arabic: الهدى, romanized: al-hudā, lit.

Its editor-in-chief, Naoum Mokarzel, provided her with Arabic literary texts to read and he personally critiqued her writing.

She took a six-month hiatus from her journalistic work to devote her efforts to the writing of her first novel, Badi'a and Fu'ad (Arabic: بديعة وفؤاد, romanized: badī'a wa fu'ād), published in 1906 by Al-Hoda Press.

[10] Karam's stories show man as oppressor and woman as oppressed, and condemn the governmental and religious institutions that uphold such unjust practices in Lebanon.

Feminist currents spread among a segment of the Arab intelligentsia, giving rise to the establishment of a number of women's journals just before and just after the turn of the twentieth century.

"[7] In turn, literati in Arab countries recognized Karam as a journalist and a novelist and her articles were republished in women's journals such as Fatāt al-Sharq (Young Woman of the East).