Kim Roberts is the author of the popular guidebook, A Literary Guide to Washington, DC: Walking in the Footsteps of American Writers from Francis Scott Key to Zora Neale Hurston (University of Virginia Press, 2018), and the forthcoming guidebook Buried Stories: Walking Tours of Washington-Area Cemeteries (Rivanna Books, Fall 2025). She is editor of two anthologies, By Broad Potomac’s Shore: Great Poems from the Early Days of our Nation’s Capital (University of Virginia Press, 2020, selected by the DC Public Library and East Coast Centers for the Book for the 2021 Route 1 Reads program), and Full Moon On K. Street: Poems About Washington DC (Plan B Press, 2010).
Kim is also the author of seven books of poems; her newest books are the forthcoming volume Q&A for the End of the World, a collaboration with poet Michael Gushue (WordTech Editions, April 2025); and Corona/Crown, a cross-disciplinary chapbook created with photographer Robert Revere (WordTech Editions, 2023). Her other poetry books are: The Scientific Method (WordTech Editions, 2017), Fortune’s Favor: Scott in Antarctica (Poetry Mutual, 2015), Animal Magnetism (Pearl Editions, 2011), The Kimnama (Poetry Mutual/Vrzhu Press, 2007), and The Wishbone Galaxy (Washington Writers Publishing House, 1994).
Individual poems of hers have been featured in over 50 anthologies. Kim has published widely in literary journals throughout the US, as well as in Brazil, Canada, England, France, India, Ireland, Israel, New Zealand, the Philippines, and Switzerland. She has been included in journals starting with every letter of the alphabet, and individual poems have been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, German, and Mandarin. She has been featured in the Wick Poetry Center’s Traveling Stanzas Project, in the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day Project, and in podcasts sponsored by the Library of Congress, the Library of Virginia, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Kim is the founder of two literary journals. She established Beltway Poetry Quarterly in 2000 (and served as editor of the journal for twenty years, through the end of 2019). And she co-founded of the Delaware Poetry Review in 2007 (which published through 2017).
Kim is currently one of two writers-in-residence at Dumbarton Oaks Conservancy, through a national program called Writing the Land. She was one of five Pride Poets in Residence at the Arts Club of Washington for 2023, and was awarded a 2023 Individual Practitioner Fellowship from Humanities DC. She is the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the DC Commission on the Arts, Humanities DC, and a Rose Library Research Fellowship from Emory University. Kim has also been awarded writer’s residencies at eighteen artist colonies and retreats.
Literary historian of DC authors
Kim at Art Omi International Sculpture Park, October 2019
Kim’s popular guide book, A Literary Guide to Washington, DC, combines walking tours with portraits of some of the capitol’s most significant writers, as well as excerpts of their work. She continues that celebration of the capital city’s literary history with the anthology By Broad Potomac’s Shore: Great Poems from the Early Days of Our Nation’s Capital. Both books were published by the University of Virginia Press.
Kim is well known for her extensive research on writers with ties to Washington, DC. She co-edits the web exhibit DC Writers’ Homes with Dan Vera (first published in December 2011 and updated regularly). Kim regularly gives literary walking tours of DC neighborhoods to schools and nonprofit groups. Her tours have been featured at the Association of University Presses annual conference, the DC Historical Studies Conference, Smithsonian Associates, and Washington Walks.
Kim’s newest direction is research on DC-area cemeteries. Her guide book of cemetery walking tours, Buried Stories, is forthcoming from Rivanna Books, an imprint of the University of Virginia Press, in 2025.
Corona/Crown