Kathleen Elizabeth George

Background

Kathleen Elizabeth George was born on July 7, 1943, in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, United States, to Richard Thomas and Catherine Ann (Abraham) George.

Education

In 1964, Kathleen received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pittsburgh, then, she received a Master of Arts in 1966, a Ph.D. in 1975, and Master of Fine Arts in 1988.

Career

Kathleen Elizabeth George has been teaching theater arts for over three decades. She is involved in the University of Pittsburgh’s Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program, an interdisciplinary program focusing on the medieval and Renaissance periods. She has been involved in the university’s Semester-at- Sea program, which combines classroom courses with a semester spent on a ship that travels to nine or ten different countries. George was the academic dean for this program in 1987. She also directs plays at the Three Rivers Shakespearean Festival in Pittsburgh. It took ten years for her to publish her first collection of fiction. Prior to that she focused most of her attention on the theater: teaching classes, directing plays, and writing nonfiction books about theater. George is also involved in fiction writing.

In 1994, George completed her second nonfiction work on theater. George’s fiction writing began several years before she published her first collection of stories. In the 1980s, George sent out several short stories to literary and popular publications. One of her earlier stories, “Too Much Woman,” which was published in Mademoiselle, describes a woman who confronts her boss, her ex-husband, and his girlfriend at a dinner party.

Achievements

• Kathleen George is the best-selling author of a series of thrillers set in Pittsburgh where she lives and where she is a professor of theater at the University of Pittsburgh. Her sixth novel Simple and her fifth novel Hideout have both won high praise by reviewers, including starred reviews. Her fourth, The Odds, out in paperback, was a finalist for an Edgar award for best novel of the year in 2010. She is also the author of the acclaimed novels Taken, Fallen, and After image, the short story collection The Man In The Buick, and the 2011 edited collection of stories, Pittsburgh Noir.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Odds

    (The Homicide Department is upside down—Richard Christie i...)

    2009
  • Hideout

    (The new book in Kathleen George's stunning Pittsburgh-set...)

    2011
  • Simple

    (Nominated for an Edgar Award for Best Novel for The Odds,...)

    2012
  • Afterimage

    (In the humid dog days of a Pittsburgh summer weekend, Ric...)

    2007
  • Taken

    (The child was taken in broad daylight, on a warm June mor...)

    2008
  • Playwriting: The First Workshop

    (This is a practical introduction to the basic principles,...)

    1994
  • The Johnstown Girls

    (Ellen Emerson may be the last living survivor of the John...)

    2014
  • Fallen

    (It happened in the night, when no one was around to see i...)

    2008
  • Rhythm in Drama 1980
  • Pittsburgh Noir 2011
  • Winter's Tales: Reflections On The Novelistic Stage 2005
  • The Man In The Buick 1999

Views

George averred that she sees both forms, theater and fiction, as “one field,” adding that theater is “very social and extroverted,” whereas fiction writing is “private and interior.” Both forms are about expression. According to George, theater “features confrontation,” while fiction writing “tends to feature reflection.”

Membership

Kathleen George was a member of Poets and Writers, Theater in Higher Education, Phi Beta Kappa.

Connections

Kathleen George is married to Hilary Thomas Masters.

Father:

Richard Thomas George

February 3, 1928 – June 14, 2015

Hilary Masters was an American novelist, the son of poet Edgar Lee Masters, and Ellen Frances Coyne Masters.

Mother:

Catherine Ann (Abraham) George

husband:

Hilary Thomas Masters

father-in-law:

Edgar Lee Masters

August 23, 1868 – March 5, 1950

Edgar Lee Masters was an American attorney, poet, biographer, and dramatist.