Henrick Karoliszyn

Henrick Karoliszyn is an award-winning journalist, fiction writer, Doctor of Social Work (DSW), and licensed private investigator. After passing the State of Louisiana Board of Private Investigators exam, he joined the Phelps Dunbar law firm as a full-time investigator, leading investigations across the Gulf Coast and London from 2020 to 2026. Before entering the legal field, Karoliszyn built a career in journalism. As a staff writer for the Gannett-owned New Orleans City Business, he covered law, health care policy, and energy through long-form reporting. He previously served as national correspondent at the New York Daily News from 2008-2013, worked as a staff writer for The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, and covered the criminal justice beat for The Wall Street Journal from 2015-2017. In 2026, he returned to journalism as an investigative reporter for The Defender.

His freelance stories have appeared in The New York Times, Aeon Magazine, Coffee or Die Magazine, The Crime Report, Newsweek, the New York Post and the commemorative book, Rolling Stone Cover to Cover: The First 40 Years. His essay, "Precognitive Police," was anthologized in the textbook, Rereading America: Cultural Contexts for Critical Thinking and Writing, alongside works by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Jamaica Kincaid, Sherman Alexie and others. His fiction was selected by the Ernest Hemingway Foundation and published in the 2025 Hemingway Shorts literary anthology, shortlisted twice for The Letter Review Prize, named winner of the 2025 Breakwater Fiction Contest, and a finalist for the 2026 Ellis Prize for Fiction, and the 2026 Kurt Vonnegut Speculative Fiction Prize. His writing has also been featured in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Flash Fiction Magazine, Superlative Literary Journal, Major 7th Magazine, FOLIO Literary Journal, Blood+Honey, BULL, The Argyle Literary Magazine, The Swannanoa Review, Modern Flash Fiction, and ExPat Press along with forthcoming editions of the New Ohio Review, The Threepenny Review, and The Write Launch. He is also the author of a chapbook published by Bottlecap Press.

Henrick’s journalism has been recognized with awards from the Society of Silurians, the National Association of Black Journalists, Wesleyan University and the National Headliner Awards program among other prizes. He received a Kiplinger Fellowship in public affairs journalism at The Ohio State University, a juvenile justice fellowship at the Center on Media, Crime and Justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, an H.F. Langeloth crime reporting fellowship and the Journalist Law School fellowship at LMU Loyola Law School. His in-depth reporting on Occupy Wall Street and the Sandy Hook mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut was submitted to the Pulitzer Board. He's been invited to discuss his work on NBC, NPR, and other news outlets. He was also selected to speak at the National Press Foundation.

Henrick received his DSW degree from the University of Southern California focusing his studies on secondary trauma in the American freelance population. He is currently building an online toolkit, the Freelance Frontier, to fill in this mental health care gap in journalism. He holds a Master of Arts (M.A.) degree from New York University where he studied communications with an NYU Dean's Scholarship. He also holds a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in communications and mass media from NYU where he was a Founder's Day recipient and NYU Scholar.

Henrick is a motorcycle enthusiast, nomadic traveler, three-time marathoner, and lifelong surfer. Live music, pulp novellas, noir films, and literature are some of his passions. A Canadian-American dual citizen, he lives in New Orleans.