Karen Stolz, who grew up in Atchison and Lawrence, Kansas, has fulfilled a lifelong dream to return to Kansas. Stolz was hired as a full-time instructor at Pittsburg State University, in Pittsburg, Kansas, to teach creative writing and literature. She began teaching at PSU in the fall of 05. Her son Danny Spence is a student at K.U. in Lawrence, studying film editing. Her sister Katie Kutilek works at The Mercantile in Lawrence. Karen’s parents, Dutch and Jeanne, now live in Lawrence too. Karen’s older sister Maggie Cloud works at Whole Foods in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Karen Stolz received a MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 1982. She has had short stories and essays published nationally. WORLD OF PIES (Hyperion 2000) was Karen’s first published novel. WORLD OF PIES was a Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selection and has been published in Germany, Sweden, Italy, Portugal, Australia and Holland. WORLD OF PIES was a June 2000 BookSense pick and was listed by the School Library Journal as one of the Best Adult Books for Young Adults, in 2000. WORLD OF PIES was published in condensed form in Good Housekeeping’s October 2000 issue. Karen’s second novel, FANNY AND SUE, was published by Hyperion in March 2003. It was the August selection for the Pulpwood Queens Book Club as well as the 2003 required summer reading pick for Ursuline Academy in St. Louis, where Karen was a featured speaker.
Karen has taught creative writing at Austin Community College, St. Edward’s University New College and at the Writer’s League of Texas. She was awarded a 1999 Fiction Fellowship from the Austin Writers’ League/Texas Commission on the Arts, and was a fiction finalist for the 2000 Violet Crown Award. Currently Karen is completing revisions on ARVETTA, a book she is co-authoring with Herman Wright.