About Kari/Media Information

Below are short and medium bios, photos, additional info to pull from, and availability:

Short bio

Kari Martindale is a Pushcart-prize nominated poet and spoken word artist published in various journals and anthologies.  She sits on the Board of Maryland Writers’ Association, has an M.A. in Linguistics, and helped get EC Poetry & Prose off the ground.

Medium Bio

Kari Martindale is a poet and spoken word artist living in Frederick County, Maryland.  A Pushcart nominee, she has been published in a variety of journals and anthologies.  She sits on the Board of Maryland Writers’ Association as the President of the Frederick Chapter and was recently appointed Co-editor of the literary journal Pen in Hand. She is also a managing member of EC Poetry & Prose.  Kari served as a panelist for the Maryland State Arts Council Independent Artist Awards 2022 as well as a judge for Poetry Out Loud. Kari has a Master’s in Linguistics from George Mason, is a veteran of the Air Force, and has visited all 50 States and nearly 40 countries.  She can be found at kariannmartindale.com.

Additional info for longer bios:

Kari is committed to setting children up for success. She is a Girl Scout troop leader in Frederick County, as well as Communications Manager for the Service Unit.

From 2017-2019, Kari was adjunct faculty at Frederick Community College, where she taught English as a Second Language, which she also taught at the International Language Institute in Gaithersburg, MD.

Kari’s academic background includes a Master’s in Linguistics from George Mason University and various certificates and diplomas in foreign languages, Linguistics, and translation.  Her personal foreign language background includes English, Spanish, Arabic, and German, with reading and tourist-level speaking capabilities in other Romance and Germanic languages.

Availability:

Kari performs spoken word poetry and is available for readings.  Subjects typically center on social justice.

She is also available for readings of her picture books in the Flash Series, or to speak with children of any age about foreign languages and travel.  She is also available to present to writers’ groups on Critiques: Giving and Receiving (and Hopefully Not Crying), and Turning Past Prose into Poetry.

Kari serves as a volunteer Scholarship Judge for a non-profit organization and is available to present scholarship essay writing workshops, including to Girl Scout Ambassadors working on the College Knowledge badge.  She has presented the Girl Scout Novelist badge workshop to Seniors in the greater Nation’s Capitol.

Previous invited talks have included The Importance of Learning Foreign Languages; Applying Linguistics to the Real World; and Iraq and the Iraqi Dialect (she no longer gives the Iraqi presentation).

While living in Germany, Kari blogged at Karilogue.com, was a contributor at GermanyJa.com, and was featured by Expatica.com and other expat and travel websites, as well as in the book Expat Education: An Expat’s Guide to Choosing a School Overseas (Mobbs, 2017).  She served as Elternbeirat (parent-teacher liaison) for her daughter’s Grade 3 class at the International School Seeheim-Jugenheim, 2015-2016. 

Kari spends most of her time with her husband (a saint, really), her daughter (who is waaaay too much like her), and their two miniature schnauzers, #EnderAndFalkor.

She’s well-traveled: she’s visited all 50 States and over 35 countries, she lived as an expat from 2012-2016, and she occasionally blogs about her travels at karilogue.com. She is ALMOST ALWAYS planning her next road trip.

Kari was a writer for the former print publication the Urbana Town Courier and is a freelance writer and editor (particularly of children’s manuscripts, including rhyme); she is open to nonfiction assignments.

Some favorites…

Favorite authors: Bill Bryson, Carl Hiaasen, Jeffrey Archer.

Favorite picture books: Jeremy Draws a Monster, The Lorax, I Wish That I Had Duck Feet, How Do I Love You (Hallinan), A Good Day, Her Right Foot.

Which books most influenced my life: The Forgotten Door, A Wrinkle in Time, The Mixed-Up Files of Basil E Frankweiler, A Walk in the Woods, The Five People You Meet in Heaven*, and the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure series.

Favorite illustrators: David Catrow, Jerry Pinkney.

Favorite artists: Salvador Dalí, Antoni Gaudí, Pablo Picasso.

Favorite road trips: Ireland/Northern Ireland; Great Lakes; Germany’s Maerchenstrasse (Fairy Tale Route); Normandie; a loop through Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Hungary; and a 3-Generation trip through Germany/Austria/Czech Republic with my daughter and mother.

Favorite TV shows: Golden Girls, Soap.

Favorite movie: Goonies; Knives Out; and any & every good heist movie.

*The Five People You Meet in Heaven is a nice look at how we unknowingly affect the lives of others.  Literally everyone should read it.

“The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.” -Muhammad Ali