Karen B. Kurtz
Award-winning author Karen B. Kurtz has published books, essays in anthologies, poetry, and countless nonfiction articles for readers of all ages.
Mark A. Kurtz, her husband and award-winning photographer, illustrates most of her work.
About Karen
Award-winning author Karen B. Kurtz began writing and publishing nationally in college. After her marriage to award-winning photographer Mark A. Kurtz, the new Kurtz Team formed a writing-photography corporation.
Sophia’s Gift (Intellect Publishing, 2020), Karen’s fifth book, won Gold in Human Relations Indie Book Awards for cultural human relations in children’s books, Short Listed in Chanticleer International’s Little Peeps Book Awards for picture books, and was a Finalist in Canadian-based IAN’s Book of the Year Awards for children’s nonfiction.
Award-winning artist Loran Chavez of Fairhope, Alabama, illustrated Sophia’s Gift with vivid watercolor spreads. Sophia’s Gift is a must read for parents, grandparents, children, Junior Collectors, and adult enthusiasts of all ages! A Letter of Provenance captures the story. Color photos in Historical Note recall Victorian times. Hardcover nonfiction, 32 pages. Available worldwide in English.
A former educator, editor, college administrator, consultant, publisher, and corporate president, Karen’s book credits also include Paper, Paint, and Stuff and its sequel, More Paper, Paint, and Stuff (Penguin USA/Pearson, successor to Scott, Foresman, represented by the late great Jane Jordan Browne, 1980s). Karen’s essays and poetry are anthologized in Mississippi Gulf Coast and Neighboring Sites,2013; Mississippi Profiles, 2014; Seven Hills Review in 2015 and 2016; Birmingham Arts Journal Volumes 13-1 and 14-4; and Oxford So & So, twice.
Diverse magazine credits include Alabama Heritage, Antique DOLL Collector, AntiqueWeek, Birmingham Arts Journal, Child Life, Civil War Times, Cobblestone, Contemporary DOLL Collector, Country, Country Woman, Daisy, Doll Collector’s Price Guide, Doll Crafter, DOLL NEWS, Doll Reader, Doll World, DOLLS, Farm Journal, The Goshen News, Highlights for Children, Instructor, Jack and Jill, Lady’s Circle, Messenger, On the Line, Paperdoll Review, Plane and Pilot, Scholastic, South Bend Tribune, Teddy Bear and Friends, and many more.
Money earned from consultation with 200 nonprofits in the 1990s bankrolled The Kurtz Kollection,™ the premier line of greeting cards and stationery featuring Mark’s quality images of precious dolls. An initial market test yielded orders in 30 states and Canada.
The Kurtz Kollection™ sold out at IDEX, its first trade show in Dallas. At the Doll and Teddy Bear Expo in Hollywood, The Kurtz Kollection was featured on CNN News. Gifts and Decorative Accessories highlighted the brand’s “eye-catching displays that are masters of both function and form, cleverly providing creative, ready-made alternatives to run-of-the-mill units.”
National sales representation advanced The Kurtz Kollection™ from the doll-collecting industry into the gift and stationery marketplace. Direct mail fulfillment and Mark’s photos were major factors in its success.
Karen earned a master’s degree from Indiana University. Her biography is listed in Who’s Who in the World, Who’s Who of American Women, Who’s Who of Professionals, The World Who’s Who of Women (International Biographical Centre, Cambridge, England) and more. She has presented on radio, at schools, libraries, conferences, and community groups, and won grants and national writing contests.
She received the 2010 Coleman Award in the Research of Antique Dolls from United Federation of Doll Clubs (UFDC), Kansas City, to document the true stories of Civil War dolls with provenance. UFDC is the foremost doll collecting organization in the world. Karen’s ongoing research continues to have many outcomes, including the award-winning Sophia’s Gift.
At age 12, Karen found Ethel, an old Hertwig china doll with gold-painted name, and Minerva, a paint-starved tin head doll, lying neglected in her grandfather’s attic. She added them to her growing doll collection and has continued to search out interesting dolls ever since.
Karen B. Kurtz is at work on new book development, virtual programs, consultation, and magazine commissions.
Virtual Programs
Karen B. Kurtz loves to connect from her office virtually with readers in their classrooms, libraries, bookstores, conferences, and conventions.
