Christina Katz

Christina Katz(born December 5, 1966) is an American author, speaker and writing instructor. Katz is the author of reference books for writers, a writing instructor, and she publishes e-zines for emerging and established authors. Her books, "Writer Mama, How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids", (March 2007), and "Get Known Before the Book Deal, Use Your Strengths to Grow an Author's Platform", (October 2008) have been published by Writer's Digest Books.

Early life and education

Christina Perry was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, and she was raised in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, the second of three children and the only daughter.

From 1979-1984, Katz attended Wilbraham & Monson Academy, where she was captain of her sports teams (soccer, swimming and softball) and graduated Cum Laude.

From 1984-1988, Katz attended Dartmouth College, where she obtained a bachelor's degree in English with a minor in Sociology. She was co-captain of the Dartmouth Women's Rugby Club in her junior and senior years and spent a quarter living with a French family in Blois, France, during her sophomore year.

After Dartmouth, Katz worked for a small advertising agency in Chicago that had large medical marketing firms such as Thompson Medical Company among its clients. She was an assistant to several entrepreneurs over the years including Judith Knapp and Gary A. Rosenberg.

Katz's first publications occurred in her high school literary magazine. She wrote sports updates for "The Dartmouth" newspaper in college. From 1992-1995, Katz completed coursework for an MFA degree in Fiction Writing at Columbia College Chicago. Her work was selected for publication in the award-winning literary anthology "Hair Trigger 14". She was nominated to write for the journalism department's publication, "Chicago Arts and Communications Magazine". While in graduate school, she co-founded a reading series for graduate students with Kristin Bair O'Keeffe called Readings in the Raw, which continues at the college today.

Before shifting gears to book writing, Katz published regularly in regional, online and national magazines and newspapers including "Country Sampler", "The Oregonian" newspaper and Bluesuitmom.com. Her specialty writing can be found in "Writer’s Digest" magazine, "2008 Guide to Literary Agents", and a monthly column in "The Willamette Writer" as well as online in her e-zines, "Writers on the Rise" and "The Writer Mama".

Memberships and causes

Katz is a member of Willamette Writers and the Oregon Writer’s Colony. She is a board member of the Wilsonville Arts & Culture Council. She created and hosts the Northwest Author Series in Wilsonville, Oregon, throughout the school year. She supports funding public libraries and reading to young children. She gives away four full-tuition scholarships to her entry-level writing class annually. Each September, Katz hosts a month-long book giveaway for mom writers.

Family

Katz currently resides in Wilsonville, Oregon, with her husband, Jason, and daughter, Samantha.

Although she was published prior to her daughter’s birth, Katz started to take her writing career more seriously after becoming a mother. She credits motherhood and the desire to set a good career example for her daughter for her literary success.

Career

In addition to writing for publication, Katz started teaching writing for publication to adults in 2001. After teaching at Whatcom Community College in Bellingham, Washington, for three years, Katz started offering classes by e-mail. She now offers five e-mail classes that help her students progress from writing a first article and getting it published to landing a nonfiction book deal. She also teaches e-curriculum development, first-time-author book marketing, and offers a one-day nonfiction workshop.

Katz's former students are regularly published in national as well as regional and online publications. Several have landed book deals. She mentors over one hundred students a year.

Katz founded and publishes two free monthly e-zines that encourage writers to take their writing careers to the next level. "Writers on the Rise", publishing since October 2003, features columnists who give advice on all aspects of writing, including freelancing, specializing, poetry, personal essay writing, fiction writing, and platform development. "The Writer Mama Zine", which began publishing in January 2008, focuses on ways mom writers can prosper in their efforts to write from home while raising their kids.

Katz posts regularly at her blogs, Writer Mama Riffs and Get Known Before the Book Deal.

Katz speaks at writing conferences and graduate school writing programs around the country on topics related to helping writers establish and advance their writing career.

In all of her endeavors, Katz emphasizes that writers need to do more than write well; they also need to take complete responsibility for their writing careers. She stresses that writers who desire success in the traditional publishing industry need to be proactive and maintain a positive, professional attitude. She advises writers just getting started to take baby-steps and build on past success.

Although she specializes in working with busy moms, Katz says, “Writing is all I ever wanted to do and nothing makes me feel more comfortable than spending time with other writers. Writers are my tribe.”

Early career influences included Erica Jong, Dorothy Alison, Maya Angelou and Alice Walker. Later role models were Julia Cameron, Natalie Goldberg and Anne Lamott. Mentors have included Sonia Choquette, Jean Houston, Wendy Burt, Kelly James-Enger and Moira Allen.

In August 2004, Katz was invited to appear on "Good Morning America" with her then two-year old. She was interviewed in a segment on mothers called “Time for you,” by Diane Sawyer.

Katz is represented by Rita Rosenkranz of Rita Rosenkranz Literary Agency in New York. Her editor at Writer’s Digest Book is Editorial Director, Jane Friedman.

Works

* "Writer Mama, How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids", Writer's Digest Books, March 2007
* "Get Known Before the Book Deal, Use Your Strengths to Grow an Author's Platform", Writer's Digest Books, October 2008.

References

* [http://www.christinakatz.com]
* [http://writersdigest.com/article/Katz-Interview/]

External links

* The Writer Mama: [http://thewritermama.com/]
* The Writer Mama Riffs blog & e-zine archive: [http://thewritermama.wordpress.com/]
* Get Known Before the Book Deal: [http://getknownbeforethebookdeal.typepad.com/]
* Christina Katz's Web site: [http://christinakatz.com/]
* Writers Digest Interview with Christina Katz: [http://writersdigest.com/article/Katz-Interview/]
* Writers on the Rise Web site: [http://writersontherise.com]
* Writers on the Rise blog & e-zine archive: [http://writersontherise.wordpress.com/]