Kim Roberts

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 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 six books of poems; her newest book, Corona/Crown, a cross-disciplinary chapbook created with photographer Robert Revere, was released by WordTech Editions in November 2023. Her other 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).

At the Literary Hill BookFest, May 2018

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 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 been awarded writer’s residencies at eighteen artist colonies and retreats, including: Art Omi International Artists Retreat, Blue Mountain Center, the Edward Albee Foundation, Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts, Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, Mesa Refuge, Millay Colony for the Arts, New York Mills Arts Retreat, The Pine Needles Fellowship at St. Croix Watershed Research Station (sponsored by the Science Museum of Minnesota), Ragdale Foundation, Soul Mountain Retreat, Ucross Foundation, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.

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). She worked with the DC Public Libraries to conceptualize DC By the Book, an online, interactive map of fiction set in Washington, DC.  Humanities DC commissioned Kim to write a limited-edition, nonfiction chapbook, Lip Smack: A History of Spoken Word in DC, in conjunction with their 30th anniversary (Beltway Editions, 2010).

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, Split This Rock Poetry Festival, the DC Historical Studies Conference, Smithsonian Associates, and Washington Walks. In 2019, she was the Festival Director of the Walt Whitman 200 Festival, sponsored by Humanities DC. Her research on Walt Whitman’s ten years as a resident of Washington has been published in The Walt Whitman Quarterly Review, as well as being featured in articles in The Washington Post and The Washington Times, on radio programs on WAMU-FM and WPFW-FM, and in panel presentations at Rutgers University and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.