Karen Buzzard

Karen S. Buzzard was born and raised in the Missouri Ozarks on a 40-acre farm, west of Neosho, Mo where her family has lived for four generations. Her father was Clyde E Buzzard, a farmer, country assessor, and mechanic at Rocketdyne, a rocket engine manufacturing plant which operated for a twelve-year period during the Space program. Her mother, Gertrude Simons Buzzard, was a farmer, a housewife, and mother of five children.

The author attended a two-room country school, known as Belfast, and high school in Neosho, MO. She attended Drury College in Springfield, MO and the University of Iowa for her BA and MA in English and American literature respectively. She went to film school for one year in Carbondale, Illinois, but transferred to the University of Wisconsin at Madison after receiving a four-year scholarship for her Ph.D. in Communication Arts.

Now professor emeritus, the author focuses on more creative ventures, She writes short stories and plays. She is a painter and has written and illustrated a children's book.