Karen Durrie

I'm a skilled communicator with education and experience in journalism, content creation, writing, editing, book publishing, and public relations.

I'm passionate about telling stories concisely and creatively.

Calgary Herald •

Strategies offered for coping with grief

Among the things that COVID-19 has stolen from us, the hardest is the people — whether lost to the virus or other illnesses. Many died at a time when family and friends were unable to see or support them, and were often unable to conventionally honour them through ceremony due to health restrictions.

Grief has been an overarching theme during the pandemic, with losses ranging from what “normal life” was once like to the most profound: the loss of a loved one. My own husband died in March from c
CREB Now •

CREB® | Artistic overhaul

cSPACE King Edward is located inside the old King Edward School, an 105-year-old sandstone building in the community of South Calgary. Courtesy cSPACE

Once a sandstone monolith surrounded by bald prairie, King Edward School has seen countless generations of students pass through its hallways. Its slate staircases bear faint grooves from more than a century of feet, including the hard-soled boots of soldiers that once used its basement for rifle-range training.Now, 105 years later, the inner-cit
YellowPages.ca •

Recordland Ltd Calgary Business Story

Eraz and Al Cohen are a lot like their store: unassuming, easygoing, and, as Eraz says, “about as analog as they come.” The brothers run Recordland, a Calgary musical institution. The Inglewood shop has long been a staple stop for audiophiles since it opened in 1985 a couple blocks from its current location. The store was established by their father, Armand Cohen, whose vinyl collection filled the basement of their family home and who began selling albums at flea markets. Recordland has grown to
Canadian Jeweller Magazine •

The "Sleeping Beauty" of the Gemstone World

The pendant at her neck glows like a burst of rainbow fire. Its blazing colors resemble the expressive handiwork of an artist. The gemstone in it – one of the rarest in the world – has been mined, cleaned, cut, polished, designed and set, all by hand.

It’s taken literally millions of years and the work of many dedicated individuals to bring this uniquely Canadian work of art to market. It’s available today thanks to the experts at Korite International, a Calgary-based company that created the a
The Globe and Mail •

Read and destroy: One woman’s letters with the man who abused her

In the drawer of my bedside table there is a small mailing tube, yellowed with age and inked in the blocky letters one associates with artists and architects. Its postmark reads "1987, Duncan, B.C." The name on the return address is "Johanna Schupf."

This tube and the papers inside it have journeyed along life's track with me, a haunted relay baton that hasn't left my grasp. It lay hidden in a shoebox under my bed in the green-and-white colonial I lived in in my father's house in Calgary until