Mary B KurtzMary's work has appeared in Amsterdam Quarterly, The Hong Kong Review, The Colorado Sun, Ruminate Magazine, Braided Way, BlueHouse Journal, Speckled Trout Review, The Writers Workshop Review, and Ankle High, and Knee Deep: Women Reflect on Western Rual Living. Her first collection of essays, At Home in the Elk River Valley: Reflections on Family, Place, and the West, was recognized as a 2012 Regional Nonfiction Finalist by the National Indie Excellence Book Award program. It also received the Colorado Independent Publishers Association's 2012 Bronze EVVY Award. Apertures: Findings from a Rural Life, her second collection of essays, was recognized as a 2023 Willa Literary Award Finalist for Creative Nonfiction and a 2023 Silver Nautilus Award Winner for Memoir. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Regis University in Denver, Colorado. Mary finds inspiration for her writing in the landscape of rural northwestern Colorado where she and her husband raise hay, cattle, and quarter horses in the Elk River Valley. She and her husband have two adult children and four grandchildren. Read More Read Less