Carl Knauf and his family relocated to Colorado from New Mexico. He holds a bachelor’s in English from the University of Phoenix and a master’s in journalism and creative media from the University of Alabama. He has been involved in some form of writing for around 25 years.
He was most recently a feature and arts reporter and columnist for the Albuquerque Journal. He was also a contributor for the sports, business and city desks, but his career started at the Journal on the all-knowing, under-appreciated, never-fazed, attitude-riddled, masters of the late-night caffeine-infused shift. Also known as the copy desk.
He values the importance of community journalism almost as much as copy editing, and has not only already subscribed to his new local newspaper, he has also finagled his way in as a stringer.
Knauf’s research interests focus mostly on the significance of the arts as a balance to topics that normally dominate headlines and time slots. He also would like to explore identity, not just how the media may shape the audience’s identity, but how the audience views the identity of journalists, most prominently in pop culture portrayals. In addition, he would like to research the validity and weight of incentivized and mainstream entertainment critiques, primarily book reviews, and how they influence the industry’s market and the quality of what becomes highly-rated or a bestseller.
He has presented at multiple pop culture conferences on the topics of true crime, music and crime fiction. His latest article, “He Was Derek Raymond: Revisiting the Factory series, Black Novel, and the Beautiful Obscenity in I Was Dora Suarez,” is being published in the next volume of Crime Fiction Studies and discusses whether the British noir author’s grotesque content went too far in addressing the underlying societal issues facing Great Britain in the 1970s and 80s.
Knauf has two young children and he can’t decide if they’re keeping him young or making him old. In his free time, which has recently been categorized as endangered due to said children, he is an avid athlete, pianist and guitarist, composer of hard rock and classical music, and an author. He has published works in literary fiction, crime fiction, nonfiction, horror and humor. There is a fantasy project in the works, but maybe that is just his life.
Oh, and he can be wordy.