About

Karen Hunt is the author of Key of Mystery, book I in the YA Urban Fantasy series NIGHT ANGELS CHRONICLES, with Evernight Teen, released in February 2016. 'Reflections from Istanbul,' an excerpt from her childhood memoir, INTO THE WORLD, won the 2015 New Millennium Writings Nonfiction Award. Her essay 'Why I Choose to Remember My 50th Blood-Bath of a Birthday' was an editor's pick in Pooled Ink, 2015. She is the founder of MY WOLD PROJECT, connecting children in remote, war-torn areas around the world with children in the United States. From Amazonian Ecuador, the Sahara Desert of Morocco, the Himalayas, the Syrian refugees of Slovenia, the Hoopa of Northern California, Karen is giving voice to children around the world to share what matters most--peace and understanding. Karen is the author and/or illustrator of nineteen children’s books (many under the name Mezek Leimert) and the co-founder of InsideOUT Writers, a creative writing program for incarcerated youth in Los Angeles. She is the recipient of awards for her work with youth including the Child Welfare league of America's Award for Community Service for Children, Youth and Families. She is a 2nd degree black belt in Tang Soo Do, a first degree brown belt in Eskrima, and a boxing and kick-boxing trainer. As a child, she and her family escaped out of Egypt right before the 6 Day War, lived in a 17th century castle in Switzerland and smuggled Bibles into communist countries, to name a few of her adventures. As an adult, she lived between London and a village in Yugoslavia. She is an advocate of incarcerated and underprivileged youth and fights for their voices to be heard. Karen is a Fellow at Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Hambidge Center and Noepe Center.

Other Works

  • Reflections from Istanbul: Into the World

    2015
  • Why I Choose to Remember My 50th Blood-Bath of a Birthday Instead of Trying to Forget It

    2015

Awards and Recognition

  • 2015 New Millennium Writings Nonfiction Award for 'Reflections from Istanbul," excerpt from my childhood memoir INTO THE WORLD, about my experiences traveling the world in the tumultuous 1960s with my fundamentalist Christian family. This excerpt is about escaping out of Egypt right before the 6-Day War. I relate these experiences to what is happening in the world today and show how no matter what religion, fundamentalism is dangerous.
  • 2015 Pooled Ink editor's pick for my essay 'Why I Choose to Remember My 50th Blood-Bath of a Birthday Instead of Trying to Forget It.' Because I love teenagers and have worked with incarcerated youth for many years, the night of my 50th birthday found me convincing a young man with seven stab wounds to go to the hospital before he died. I remember another birthday, of a girl who was sentences to twenty-five years to life on her eighteenth birthday and I stood in the courtroom supporting her. That was twenty years ago and she is now about to be released.