Karla Kuskin

Karla Kuskin (née Seidman) (July 17, 1932 – August 20, 2009) was a prolific American author, poet, illustrator, and reviewer of children's literature. Kuskin was known for her poetic, alliterative style.

She sometimes wrote under the pseudonym Nicholas J. Charles. Kuskin reviewed children's literature in The New York Times Book Review.

Biography Born in 1932 in Manhattan, New York, Karla Seidman was the only child of Sidney and Mitzi Seidman, and was raised in Greenwich Village, New York City.

She attended the Little Red School House, followed by Elisabeth Irwin High School. She then attended Antioch College in 1950–53, and transferred to Yale University where she studied with, among others, Josef Albers, Herbert Matter and Alvin Eisenman. She earned her B.F.A in graphic design in 1955 from Yale.

Before working as a full-time author, she worked as an assistant to a fashion photographer, a design assistant, and in advertising. Her first book, Roar and More (Harper, 1956), came out of her senior graphic arts project at Yale to design and print a book on a small press.

Personal life She was married to Charles M. Kuskin, oboist, from 1955–1979, and in 1989 married William L. Bell, Jr., a lawyer with the Center for Naval Analyses.