A Voice of the Valley

Mary B. Kurtz finds inspiration for her writing in the landscape of rural northwestern Colorado. It’s there, in the Elk River Valley, where she shares the intimate intersection between her conscious life and place. In that meeting, she’s moved to make note of the still of a heavy snow, the sleek gait of the elk, and the light – the crimson, the salmon, the beginning of the night.

Her writing "...is not only deeply felt, but deeply rooted in its place. Its density and cadence capture the weight and flow of the valley...It moves along, one thought opening to another, just as our lives and our natural world do."
                                 

      -- Ann Stranahan
                     Author of Window on the River

Recognized in Nonfiction

Mary’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 Rural Living. 


Her memoir in essays, Apertures: Findings from a Rural Life, received the 2023 Nautilus Silver Award for Memoir. It was also recognized as a 2023 Women Writing the West Willa Literary Award Finalist for Creative Nonfiction. Mary’s 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 was also the recipient of the Colorado Independent Publishers Association’s 2012 Bronze EVVY Award.


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 and quarter horses in the Elk River Valley. She and her husband have two adult children and four grandchildren.

Mary B. Kurtz finds inspiration for her writing in the landscape of rural northwestern Colorado. It’s there, in the Elk River Valley, where she shares the intimate intersection between her conscious life and place. In that meeting, she’s moved to make note of the still of a heavy snow, the sleek gait of the elk, and the light – the crimson, the salmon, the beginning of the night.

Her writing "...is not only deeply felt, but deeply rooted in its place. Its density and cadence capture the weight and flow of the valley...It moves along, one thought opening to another, just as our lives and our natural world do."
                                 

      -- Ann Stranahan
                     Author of Window on the River