Hello, welcome to my online home.
Katie Bambi Kohler began her writing career at the age of ten when she started her own in house newspaper – “Construction Paper.” The two page weekly featured a news section where she wrote about the goings on of her hometown that she observed from the backseat during many shopping trips with her mother.
Sports consisted of a very angry rant on the state of each Philadelphia team. The entertainment portion covered Kohler’s love of Super Mario’s Brothers video games and her continued failure to defeat Bald Bull in Punch Out!
In eighth grade she was named co-editor of the school newspaper at Holy Saviour in Norristown. Since exposes were frowned upon she turned them into humor pieces – “Ref E. Ree – The corrupt CYO official” and “Behind the Asbestos Pipes.”
She attended Norristown High School where she joined the award winning newspaper “The Wingspan.” There she “found her tribe” of writers and newspaper nerds. Kohler knew that she wanted to be a journalist and earned a degree in Communication from La Salle University in Philadelphia.
From 2000-2002, Kohler interned at The Times Herald in Norristown covering various women’s sports with over 500 published stories. Post college, she took a position in public relations since newspapers where bankrupt or closing. This made Kohler more upset than an Italian forced to eat Ragu. She always loved the atmosphere of the newsroom, the urgency of the deadlines and the smell of musty papers.
Public relations and other types of administrative work paid the bills but Kohler could not ignore the urge to make mischief with the pen. In 2007 she signed up for a stand up comedy class and began to write pages of jokes. Performing stand up comedy was always on Kohler’s “Life’s to Do List.” Also on the list is owning a penguin/petting a penguin/ability to visit a penguin habitat.
After finishing what her parents called “Clown College,” she started attending open mics and performed in front of at least a dozen other standup comedians. She started her own comedy show at Screwballs in King of Prussia which she booked acts and hosted. She performed on the weekends at the Comedy Cabaret, DuPont Theatre and too many fire halls and VFW’s to list.
In 2012, Kohler started writing a weekly slice of life column for The Times Herald. Her column appears every Sunday and she has written about topics such ranging from goat herders to the importance of Mr. Rogers.
Main Line Today magazine publishes her essays on their back page “End of the Line.”
View her resume.
Kohler resides in King of Prussia with her husband Tom.
Awards
2018
Professional Keystone Press Awards
First place for series writing
Second place for special project reporting
Honorable mention for feature writing
Kohler scores a hat trick with three PWPA awards
Society of Professional Journalists Keystone Chapter
First place for commentary
First place for sports reporting
Pennsylvania Women’s Press Awards
Second Place for Profiles and Interviews
Third Place for Sports Reporting
Third Place for Columns
2017
Professional Keystone Press Awards
First place for column writing
http://www.timesherald.com/general-news/20170327/katie-bambi-kohler-takes-1st-in-keystone-press-contest
2016
Pennsylvania Women’s Press Association
Third place for sports reporting.
2015
Pennsylvania Women’s Press Association
Second place for sports reporting
The Philadelphia Press Association
Second place for newspaper writing
Third place for column writing.
