Kathleen Karr
Kathleen Karr (née Csere; April 21, 1946 – December 6, 2017) was an American author of historical novels for children and young adults. She is the winner of the Golden Kite Award for her book, The Boxer.
Kathleen Karr | |
|---|---|
| Born | Kathleen Csere April 21, 1946 Allentown, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | December 6, 2017 (aged 71) Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Genre | Historical novels |
| Notable works | The Boxer The Great Turkey Walk |
| Notable awards | Golden Kite Award (2000) Agatha Award (2003) |
Early life and education edit
Karr was born April 21, 1946, in Allentown, Pennsylvania and grew up on a chicken farm in the Dorothy section of Weymouth Township, New Jersey[1] She graduated from Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. in 1968 and received a master's degree in English literature from Providence College in Providence, Rhode Island in 1971.
Career edit
Karr worked at the newly formed American Film Institute in Washington, D.C. in 1971. After a year there, she worked for the Circle Theatre chain until her daughter was born. She wrote her first novel, Light of My Heart, in 1984. After her young children asked her to write a story for them, she published her first children's book, It Ain't Always Easy (1990), and began a full-time career writing for children and young adults.
In her novel The Great Turkey Walk, she depicts the movement of poultry from county to county[2] where poultry was walked from Union, West Virginia in Monroe County to the stockpens in much the same way it was done for centuries.
She is the author of Gilbert and Sullivan Set Me Free about a women's prison. Based on a historical event in 1914, the inmates of Sherborn Women's Prison in Sherborn, Massachusetts put on a performance of The Pirates of Penzance. In her novel, the prison's chaplain uses the transformative power of music and theater in helping reform inmates and in bringing them together in spirited community.
Death edit
Titles edit
- Fortune's Fool (2008)
- Born for Adventure (2007)
- Worlds Apart (2005)
- Mama Went to Jail for the Vote (2005)
- Exiled: Memoirs of a Camel (2004)
- Gilbert & Sullivan Set Me Free (2003)
- The 7th Knot (2003)
- Bone Dry (2002)
- Playing With Fire (2001)
- The Boxer (2000)
- It Happened In the White House (2000)
- Skullduggery (2000)
- Man of the Family (1999)
- The Great Turkey Walk (1998)
- Oregon, Sweet Oregon (1998)
- Lighthouse Mermaid (1998)
- Gold Rush Phoebe (1998)
- Phoebe's Folly (1997)
- Spy in the Sky (1997)
- Go West, Young Women (1997)
- In The Kaiser's Clutch (1995)
- Oh, Those Harper Girls (1995)
- The Cave (1994)
- The Promised Land (1993)
- Gideon and the Mummy Professor (1993)
- It Ain't Always Easy (1990)
References edit
- ^ Kantor,Emma. "Obituary: Kathleen Karr",Publishers Weekly, December 12, 2017. Accessed September 29, 2022. "Karr was born on April 21, 1946, in Allentown, Pa., and raised in Dorothy, N.J., where her family owned a chicken farm."
- ^ see The Great Turkey Walk by Kathleen Karr for an example of the poultry drives in Fort Spring, West Virginia
External links edit
- Kathleen Karr at Library of Congress, with 30 library catalog records
- "Obituary: Kathleen Karr", Publishers Weekly, December 12, 2017
- "Kathleen Karr, children's writer who entwined history and humor, dies at 71", The Washington Post, January 10, 2018