By Mara Soloway

The Kempner High School Student Has Long Been Recognized By Iwrite Literacy Organization

Kempner High School junior Kurt Kauffman is an accomplished athlete, musician and writer. The confident and focused 16-year-old is on the school’s junior varsity swim team and coaches for the Covington Woods summer league team on which he grew up swimming. He plays alto saxophone in the praise band at College Park Baptist Church which his family attends and where his mother Lorre works as secretary, and at Kempner plays in the marching band, the top performing Wind Ensemble that recently earned a Sweepstakes at UIL and the jazz band. At a recent UH jazz festival, Kurt received an All-Star recognition for an improv solo he performed.

Kurt is in the English Honor Society at Kempner and is also quite the wordsmith, a talent that has been recognized by his family (which also includes his father Stacy and two older sisters, Madison, 25 and Mallory, 22), his teachers and those involved in the iWRITE Literacy Organization, a Houston-based organization that promotes creative writing for young people. Each year since fourth grade Kurt has entered a story into its competition, and each has been chosen for publication in iWRITE’s yearly anthology of exceptional student writing. He has also won numerous awards, including multiple Star Author awards and its highest honor, the Editor’s Choice award, in 2017 for his most extensive work to date, The Heart of the Buffalo.

Melissa Williams Murphy is iWRITE’s founder and CEO. “Kurt has been a part of the iWRITE Literacy Organization for many years and many publications. I’ve literally been able to watch him grow up and witness his writing style develop, starting in elementary school and now into high school,” she said. “We respect Kurt’s talent as an author so much that we ask him to speak to other student writers at our writing workshops, offering advice and guidance on how to develop characters and make them unique and interesting.”

Kurt received the Editor’s Choice honor last November at iWRITE’s annual luncheon and book signing, and read The Heart of the Buffalo to an audience of 500 at Hilton Americas. “It was a little nerve-wracking,” said Kurt. He enjoys the camaraderie with the other student writers and the adults involved in iWRITE, many of whom he has known for the six years of his involvement with the organization, although he doesn’t describe himself as extremely outgoing.

“I love writing stories and reading,” said Kurt, whose plot lines and characters portray the inner workings of his curious mind: his sense of humor and his interest in history, sometimes in combination. The Heart of the Buffalo is the story of a Comanche youth who is disowned by his family and called Broken Leg because he is of no use to them. He ultimately proves his wisdom and bravery to his people, who rename him Buffalo Heart.

Kurt describes the lessons in The Heart of the Buffalo: “Everyone has a strength in different areas – in one area they might be lacking; in another area they have a great reserve of strength. It’s not always the take-charge people who necessarily get the job done – they need the support from the silent people.”

Among the other stories that have been published by iWRITE are The Life of Jake about a talking raccoon and his brother who take part in securing Texas’ independence. Xander Jalapeno Habanero wants to rid the city of spicy food in My Life as a Jalapeno with Spiceaphobia. Flaming Hot Cheetos beware.

“I frequently get requests to come and read The Life of Jake at the Bryan Museum in Galveston where they have writing camps for young kids, approximately 8-11. I’ve gone several times and always have a lot of fun. The kids seem to enjoy it and I do too,” Kurt said. He is also active in iWRITE’s youth club for which he is vice president.

The foundations for Kurt’s promising writing career were laid before he could even walk. Lorre found him paging through children’s books on his own. A family friend who is a reading teacher confirmed that this was unusual for someone so young, but all agreed it was wonderful that he was stimulated by the illustrations and text. This penchant continued: sometime around first grade Kurt found a copy of Edith Hamilton’s Mythology, a book of
several hundred pages that an older sister had left on the coffee table.

Lorre feels that absorbing these storytelling archetypes helped Kurt understand the Percy Jackson series by one of his early favorite writers, Rick Riordan. Kurt always purchases the author’s books when he see them in the store. “They’re very vibrant stories. Over time I’ve gotten attached to different authors and different series, including Andrew Klavan who writes crime and suspense novels that I really enjoy,” he said. “I’ve also gotten interested in stories with more depth to them beyond humorous ones.”

Kurt’s own story is that of a self-assured young person who has formed his story ideas and style from years of reading, absorbing information and forming his own ideas. “I also definitely have a background of having very strong adult influences both male and female, and I think a big aspect for me is my life as a Christian,” he said. “I’ve tried to form my life to not push people away but to see that everyone ought to be loved and considered for everything.”

Melissa Murphy of iWRITE confirms that Kurt’s influences have helped make him a successful young author. “I’ve always said that I could spot a Kurt Kauffman story out of a stack of a thousand stories. Kurt has a very special way of developing a character and its voice, making the reader feel like they know the character in real life,” she said. “This is very hard to do, so it impresses me that someone so young has developed his craft to this level. He’ll go far in his writing.”