Hollis Kurman is an active member of Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and contributing Editor on the Board of Barrow Street Books.
Her debut picture book, Hello! A Counting Book of Kindnesses (UK) / Counting Kindness: Ten Ways to Welcome Refugee Children (US), is illustrated by Barroux and endorsed by Amnesty International. The book will be published in ten countries in 2020-21 by Otter-Barry Books, Charlesbridge, Rubinstein, Rue du Monde, and others.
Her poems (one of which was nominated for a Pushcart Prize) have been published in multiple journals. Hollis is an ‘alumna’ of children’s book writing workshops at SCBWI and the Highlights Foundation, and she has studied poetry with Sharon Olds and Daniel Hoffman.
In addition to her writing, she moderates a wide range of events and is Chairperson of the Ivy Circle Netherlands; member of the Supervisory Boards of Save the Children NL and the Fulbright Commission NL; Founder of the Human Rights Watch NL Committee and member of HRW Global Women’s Rights Advisory Council. In a former life, she was a strategy advisor specializing in growth strategy, innovation and marketing for multinational companies and organizations. She lives in Amsterdam and New York.
Hollis Kurman is an active member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and contributing Editor on the Board of Barrow Street Books.
Her debut picture book, Hello! A Counting Book of Kindnesses (UK) / Counting Kindness: Ten Ways to Welcome Refugee Children (US), is illustrated by Barroux and endorsed by Amnesty International. The book will be published in ten countries in 2020-21 by Otter-Barry Books, Charlesbridge, Rubinstein, Rue du Monde, and others.
Her poems (one of which was nominated for a Pushcart Prize) have been published in multiple journals, including Rattle, Barrow Street, Phoebe, the Ocean State Review, VIA (Voices in Italian Americana), AMS/Cipher Literary Magazine and Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine. She also writes poems for children, one of which appeared in the March/April 2019 issue of Root & Star. Hollis is an ‘alumna’ of children’s book writing workshops at SCBWI, the Highlights Foundation, and the Southampton Writers Conference, with writers including Rosemary Wells, Dan Yaccarino and Susan Eaddy. She has studied poetry with Sharon Olds (Southampton Writers Conference) and Daniel Hoffman (Penn). She has degrees from the University of Pennsylvania (BA, summa cum laude, phi beta kappa) and Georgetown University (MSFS, honors, full merit scholarship).
In addition to her writing, Hollis moderates a wide range of literary, business and not-for-profit, and academic events and is Chairperson of the Ivy Circle Netherlands; member of the Supervisory Boards of Save the Children NL and the Fulbright Commission NL; Founder of the Human Rights Watch NL Committee and member of the HRW Global Women’s Rights Advisory Council. Hollis also supports children at the International School of Amsterdam with human rights sessions and projects. In a former life, she was a strategy advisor specializing in growth strategy, innovation and marketing for multinational companies and organizations – first with McKinsey & Co. and Publicis Consultants and then with her own international consultancy, Auberon – and conducting co-creation sessions with kids and teens around the world for many years.
Born in New York City, Hollis lives between Amsterdam and New York with her Dutch husband and their two children. She also dances, choreographs, and speaks English, Dutch, French and Italian.
Below are some of Hollis’ favorite reading, writing and thinking spots:
