This article originally appeared in The Collegio on February 2nd, 2006.
by Rebecca Bauman
Karen Stolz’s success as a writer did not come by accident. She first became “determined” to be published in the third grade.
“I credit my third-grade teacher, Miss Clough, who read us all the ‘Little House on the Prairie’ books out loud in the afternoon,” Stolz said. “That hooked me. I knew I wanted very much to be published and I was very determined in how I went about it once I was of age, sending out manuscripts relentlessly.”
A Kansas native, Stolz did her undergraduate work at the University of Kansas and earned her M.F.A. at the much-renowned University of Iowa Writers Workshop. It was during her last graduate semester in Iowa that she sold her first story to a magazine. Shortly after that, she landed a literary agent. In 2000, her first book, “World of Pies,” was published by Hyperion. This success, as well as life as a teacher and single mom, left Stolz busy, and keeps her busy still. She now teaches English at Pittsburg State University, a job that has allowed her to move home to Kansas from Austin, Texas, where she taught at a community college.
“I’ve always felt there’s an inherent kindness of heart about Kansans,” she said, “and especially small-town Kansans. After living in a big city for a couple decades … I have been enjoying so much being back in a sweeter place to live.”
Stolz says her roots have always helped to guide her life as a writer. Her father, a now-retired Episcopalian minister, would sometimes talk about writers such as Flannery O’Connor and James Joyce during his sermons. Stolz says her father “got his congregation reading” and further drew her into a tradition of storytelling already well established in her family.
But it wasn’t just these practices that Stolz says helped her to become the writer she is now.
“My family absolutely supported me in countless ways in my writing endeavors,” she said, “including helping out financially over the years when things were rough.”
Family support was priceless during Stolz’s time at the University of Iowa’s Writers Workshop, a program known for being topnotch as well as “cutthroat.”
“Iowa was a big eye-opener for me,” she said. “I had a fair amount of miscellaneous ability in fiction before I went there … (I) could write with great detail, convey emotions strongly. But somehow, I hadn’t really learned how to construct a short story. I hadn’t learned how to develop tension, knit together conflict and action, move the story to a climax.”
Stolz says her first semester in the workshop was filled with “A-ha” moments of understanding. And although times within the program could sometimes be difficult, there was an upside to the work.
“As far as developing a thick skin, my heavens, you need that to go forward as a writer. The publishing world is dizzying and mystifying and brutal.”
When Stolz entered the publishing world after Iowa, she says she found some frustration, some unexpected twists and turns in the road. Though her first published book did find success on the market, Stolz found the identity that came with being a published writer somewhat “odd.”
“For years you’re ‘just a writer,’ and then suddenly, you’re an ‘author.’ I feel like I was very lucky in a lot of ways in how widely my first book was promoted by my publisher - I got to go on book tour. I learned from having my second book way less promoted … how capricious the business is, and how hard it is to figure out how to keep your sense of self in the process.”
And as a professor, Stolz says there’s now more on her plate than the world of publishing. Although she loves to teach, her class and grading schedules are relatively heavy, leaving her less time to write. However, she will have the months of July and August off to work on her fiction.
Stolz says she doesn’t mind waiting until then.
“I do like teaching creative writing because I enjoy seeing students catch on to ideas and methods,” she said, “and to surprise me with new ideas of their own. I love seeing sparks of talent, and stirring that talent to fuller fruition.”
In the meantime, Stolz plans to write further works inspired by her family, a practice she calls her “destiny.” However, the presence of a family does have its ups and downs, as it certainly did before her son turned 18.
“Certainly I felt a split between my writing work, and what I needed to do to try to keep food on the table, all the time,” Stolz said. “But there was so much content that came from being a mother. I had a richer sense of family dynamics and a strong desire to depict them.”
Although Stolz says that her life has often spurred personal themes in what she writes, she continues to seek the balance in her audience that she seeks within her working world.
“I like to think that if you love stories and especially if you love reading about family life, then you are my audience.”