Karen Ritz

Ritz grew up in rural Albany, New York loving to draw.  She attended Rhode Island School of Design during summers while in high school.  Afterward she went to Kirkland College before earning a degree in children's literature from the University of Minnesota.   Taking up writing as well as working on her drawings, Ritz authored and illustrated her first book Cornstalks and Cannonballs.  Not a truly successful book but a start to her career, Ritz took a job at a bookstore and continued illustrating.  Finally she found that she could illustrate for magazines and books full time.  Ritz also taught classes about art in children's books.  An illustrator of over forty books, Ritz continues to draw from her office in St. Paul, Minnesota.

CSS