SHRAGG, Karen (I.) 1954- (Karen Shanberg)

PERSONAL: Surname is pronounced "Shrawg"; born May 29, 1954, in Minneapolis, MN; daughter of Robert I. (a physician and artist) and Sarah B. (a homemaker and artist) Shragg; companion of John S. Armstrong (in insurance sales). Ethnicity: "Jewish." Education: University of Minnesota, B.S. (elementary education), master's degree (outdoor education); University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN, doctorate (education). Politics: "Progressive." Religion: "Ecohumanist."

ADDRESSES: Home—11307 Rich Circle, Bloomington, MN 55437. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Writer. Wood Lake Nature Center, Richfield, MN, director and interpretive naturalist.

WRITINGS:

(As Karen Shanberg; with Stan Tekiela) Plantworks, Adventure Publications (Cambridge, MN), 1992.

(As Karen Shanberg; with Stan Tekiela) Start Mushrooming, Adventure Publications (Cambridge, MN), 1993.

(As Karen Shanberg; with Stan Tekiela) Nature Smart: A Family Guide to Nature, illustrated by Julie Janke, Adventure Publications (Cambridge, MN), 1995.

A Solstice Tree for Jenny, illustrated by Heidi Schwabacher, Prometheus Books (Amherst, NY), 2001.

(Editor, with Warren David Jacobs) Tree Stories: A Collection of Extraordinary Encounters, Sunshine Press Publications (Hygiene, CO), 2002.

(With Lee Ann Landstrom) Nature's Yucky: Gross Stuff That Helps Nature Work, illustrated by Constance R. Bergum, Mountain Press (Missoula, MT), 2003.

Contributor to periodicals.

SIDELIGHTS: Karen Shragg told CA: "I believe that children's literature is a wonderful medium for what I call 'message writing.' As a committed environmentalist, organic vegan cook, peace activist, organic gardener, and humanist, I have a lot to say. My activist personality would put me in jail, I'm afraid, if I didn't have writing as an outlet. I love to express myself in poetry, editorial columns, and children's literature because the written word is a long-lasting and powerful medium. Natalie Goldberg's books were a huge influence on me.

"As an interpretive naturalist who has worked at municipal nature centers for over eighteen years, I specialize in communicating to people of all ages about a wide variety of topics. Finding inviting ways to get out a message is the real challenge, particularly when the message is about a sensitive topic. Writing is an outlet that is still, thank goodness, a way to communicate about serious things. So much small talk is about topics I find too dull for my attention span. Writing indulges my change-the-world personality in the best of ways."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

Booklist, December 15, 2001, Ilene Cooper, review of A Solstice Tree for Jenny, p. 740.