Esther Nelson Karn (August 1860 – April 13, 1936) was an American poet and business owner, based in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

[1] "The authoress is thoroughly conversant with the ways of nature and has the pleasing faculty of creating within the reader a mood essential to the fullest enjoyment of her theme," according to one reviewer in 1925.

[3] She gave public readings of her poems, sometimes with musical accompaniment,[4][5] and was a member of the Order of Bookfellows, a Chicago-based writers' organization.

[8] In widowhood after 1904, and after her brother and business partner died in the Spanish flu pandemic in 1919,[9] she continued to run the family's piano store and sheet music business in Fort Wayne, into the early 1930s.

[10][11] In 1882,[15] Esther Nelson married Samuel A. Karn, who was a sales representative for a musical instrument manufacturer.