Kemal Kurt studied in Turkey and in the US from 1966-1972, in 1975, he moved to Berlin where he earned a doctorate in physical engineering at the Technische Universität Berlin in 1983.

In 1977, he worked in art photography and published his first book in 1981.  He earned a PhD at the Technische Universität Berlin in 1983, and began writing short stories, novels, poetry, essays, children's books, radio plays, radio features, children's radio, and screenplays for children's films in 1990. Awards include Bilderbuch des Monats 12/1997; WDR, RB and SR Best of List for Spring 1996; Stipendium der Stiftung Preussische Seehandlung (1991, 2000), and Villa Aurora/Pacific Palisades (1999). Further artist residencies include Hawthornden Castle, Scotland; Waves of Three Seas, Rhodes; Centrum for Arts & Creative Education, and Port Townsend, WA.

Kemal Kurt left behind a photo archive of more than 20,000 images. From 1990, Kemal Kurt mainly focused on writing. As a freelance writer, he went on reading tours throughout Germany, Poland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Austria, Turkey, Switzerland, South Africa and the USA. The core of his creative work consists of stories for children, at first mainly for radio, such as the Ohrenbär series produced by SFB and broadcast by the ARD. He has written poetry, essays, satirical short stories and novels for adults including: hier Was ist die Mehrzahl von Heimat? (1995) and the satirical novel, Ja, sagt Molly (1998).