Kathryn Burak

Last updated

Kathryn Burak
Born (1959-06-11) June 11, 1959 (age 65)
Shamokin, Pennsylvania, U.S.
OccupationNovelist
Education Kutztown University of Pennsylvania (BA)
University of Massachusetts Amherst (MFA)
Genre Young adult fiction
Spouse
Paul Makishima
(m. 1987)
Children2

Kathryn Burak (born June 11, 1959) is an American young adult novelist.

Biography

She was born in Shamokin, Pennsylvania, the daughter of a coal miner and a seamstress. She received a BA in English from Kutztown University in Pennsylvania. and an MFA in poetry [1] from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

She is director of the Writing Program in the College of Communications at Boston University. [2]

Her debut novel "Emily's Dress and Other Missing Things" (Roaring Brook Press ISBN   1596437367) [3] is about a troubled young woman who moves to Amherst, Mass., after her mother's suicide, steals Emily Dickinson's dress from the poet's museum, and solves the mystery of her best friend's disappearance.

A starred Booklist review [4] described the novel as "a complete portrait of loss, longing, redemption and love," and the Boston Globe called it a "lyrical and erudite tribute to Amherst's most famous resident." [5]

The novel was nominated for an Edgar Award, [6] named to the Independent Booksellers Association's New Voices list for 2012, [7] and Southern Maine Library District's "Cream of the Crop" list of the best children's and young adult titles of 2012.

Burak's poetry and short stories have appeared in the Missouri Review , [8] Fiction, [9] Grey Sparrow, [10] Western Humanities Review,Gettysburg Review [11] West Branch, Yarrow, and Seventeen.

She is also co-author of the writing textbook Writing in the Works (Cengage Learning ISBN   1111834601)

She married Paul Makishima in 1987 and has two children.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patricia Smith (poet)</span> American poet (born 1955)

Patricia Smith is an American poet, spoken-word performer, playwright, author, writing teacher, and former journalist. She has published poems in literary magazines and journals including TriQuarterly, Poetry, The Paris Review, Tin House, and in anthologies including American Voices and The Oxford Anthology of African-American Poetry. She is on the faculties of the Stonecoast MFA Program in Creative Writing and the Low-Residency MFA Program in Creative Writing at Sierra Nevada University.

Jane Holland is an English poet, novelist and astrologer. She won an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors for her poetry in 1996 and her YA novel Witchstruck, written as Victoria Lamb, won the Romantic Novelists' Association's Young Adult Romantic Novel of the Year Award for 2013. Her sister is the novelist, actress and singer Sarah Holland. She also writes commercial fiction under various pseudonyms, including Betty Walker, JJ Holland, Victoria Lamb, Elizabeth Moss, Beth Good and Hannah Coates.

Dorothy Barresi is an American poet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pat Schneider</span> American writer (1934–2020)

Pat Schneider was an American writer, poet, writing teacher and editor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuala Ní Chonchúir</span> Irish writer and poet (born 1970)

Nuala Ní Chonchúir is an Irish writer and poet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adrian McKinty</span> Irish crime novelist and critic

Adrian McKinty is a Northern Irish writer of crime and mystery novels and young adult fiction, best known for his 2020 award-winning thriller, The Chain, and the Sean Duffy novels set in Northern Ireland during The Troubles. He is a winner of the Edgar Award, the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, the Macavity Award, the Ned Kelly Award, the Barry Award, the Audie Award, the Anthony Award and the International Thriller Writers Award. He has been shortlisted for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger and the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karen An-hwei Lee</span> American poet (born 1973)

Karen An-hwei Lee is an American poet.

Amy Quan Barry is a Vietnamese American poet, novelist, and playwright. She is a recipient of the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize. Barry is a Lorraine Hansberry Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Carol Louise Edgarian is an American writer, editor, and publisher. Her novels include Rise the Euphrates,Three Stages of Amazement, and Vera. She is the co-founder and editor of the non-profit Narrative Magazine, a digital publisher of fiction, poetry, non-fiction, and art; and founder of Narrative for Schools, whose programs provide free learning and teaching resources for students and educators.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A. S. King</span> American writer (born 1970)

Amy Sarig King is an American writer of short fiction and young adult fiction. She is the recipient of the 2022 Margaret Edwards Award for her "significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature". She is also the only two-time recipient of the Michael L. Printz Award for Dig (2019) and as editor and contributor to The Collectors: Stories (2023).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grant Ginder</span> American author (born 1983)

Grant Ginder is an American novelist, academic, and former political aide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beth Ann Fennelly</span> American poet and writer

Beth Ann Fennelly is an American poet and prose writer and was the Poet Laureate of Mississippi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tiphanie Yanique</span> American novelist

Tiphanie Yanique from Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, is a Caribbean American fiction writer, poet and essayist who lives in New York. In 2010 the National Book Foundation named her a "5 Under 35" honoree. She also teaches creative writing, currently based at Emory University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nina Revoyr</span> American novelist

Nina Revoyr is an American novelist and children's advocate, best known for her award-winning 2003 novel Southland. She is also executive vice president and chief operating officer of Children's Institute, Inc., which provides clinical, youth development, family support and early childhood services to children and families affected by trauma, violence and poverty in Central and South Los Angeles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ottessa Moshfegh</span> American author (born 1981)

Ottessa Charlotte Moshfegh is an American author and novelist. Her debut novel, Eileen (2015), won the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and was a fiction finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Moshfegh's subsequent novels include My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Death in Her Hands, and Lapvona.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Isabel Quintero</span> American writer

Isabel Quintero is an American writer of young adult literature, poetry and fiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angie Thomas</span> American author (born 1988)

Angie Thomas is an American young adult author, best known for writing The Hate U Give (2017). Her second young adult novel, On the Come Up, was released on February 25, 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Acevedo</span> American poet and author

Elizabeth Acevedo is an American poet and author. In September 2022, the Poetry Foundation named her the year's Young People's Poet Laureate.

<i>The Poet X</i> 2018 novel by Elizabeth Acevedo

The Poet X, published March 6, 2018 by HarperTeen, is a young adult novel by Elizabeth Acevedo. Fifteen-year-old Xiomara, also known as "X" or "Xio," works through the tension and conflict in her family by writing poetry. The book, a New York Times bestseller, was well received and won multiple awards at the 2019 Youth Media Awards.

Savannah Brown is an American-British poet and author.

References

  1. MFA Program for poets and writers [ dead link ]
  2. "Kathryn Burak | College of Communication".
  3. "Emily's Dress and Other Missing Things | Kathryn Burak | Macmillan". Archived from the original on June 23, 2013. Retrieved April 16, 2013.
  4. Emily's Dress and Other Missing Things, by Kathryn Burak | Booklist Online via www.booklistonline.com.
  5. "'Emily's Dress and Other Missing Things'; 'Safekeeping'; 'The Raven Boys' - The Boston Globe". BostonGlobe.com.
  6. "Edgar Award Winners and Nominees". www.theedgars.com. Archived from the original on March 7, 2012. Retrieved April 16, 2013.
  7. "2012 Fall New Voices Picks Announced". the American Booksellers Association. August 9, 2012.
  8. Burak, Kathryn (1991). "Aki" (PDF). The Missouri Review. 14 (2): 167–173. doi:10.1353/mis.1991.0009. S2CID   246236421.
  9. "Author Index — Fiction". Fiction. Fiction, Inc. Retrieved May 1, 2022.
  10. "Flash 2010 Flash". greysparrowpress.net. Archived from the original on July 3, 2013.
  11. "Gettysburg Review". www.gettysburgreview.com. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016.