Ida Curtis

Ida (Louks) Curtis (1935-2020) was born in New Haven, Connecticut. She grew up and went to school in Newington, Connecticut, where at age 18 she contracted polio. Two years rehabilitation in what was then called Newington Home and Hospital for Crippled Children, led to a return home, two years at St. Joseph's College in West Hartford, and marriage to Jared. As they followed his academic career, they lived in various places, spending four years at Indiana University, where Ida finished her B.A. degree in history. In 2002, after thirty years in Vancouver, British Columbia, raising two children and working at Simon Fraser University, Ida and her husband returned to the U.S. to live in Seattle, Washington. Ida turned to writing fiction and memoir after she retired in 1996. As a member of Pacific Northwest Writers Association, she won first prize for historical fiction at PNWA's annual convention in 2009. Her novel, "Song of Isabel," published by She Writes Press in 2018, grew out of that winning submission. "My Polio Memoir: 1953-2016" was published by Lulu.com in 2016. "The Nun's Betrothal," a sequel to "Song of Isabel," was published by She Writes Press in July 2020. Visit her web page at www.idacurtis.org.