Upcoming Events
Oct 2025
F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Festival
All Day on Saturday, October 18, 2025 at Montgomery College
The 29th annual F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Festival includes panels, workshops, a reading by special honoree Percival Everett, and a keynote address with Maureen Corrigan. At 10:15, Kim will present a generative writing workshop, “Writing Short,” looking closely at flash fiction and prose poems, and discussing the charm and challenge of brevity. How do these “short shorts” stop time, center on a single incident or character, and infer a rich backstory? How do we imply deep emotion as we distill the essentials of a story into a single paragraph? We will read some examples, talk about strategy, and then do some short writing of our own. See website for full information and registration.
Nov 2025
The Inner Loop
7:00 pm - 10:00 pm on Monday, November 10, 2025 at Shaw’s Tavern
Kim participates in a big group reading from the anthology America’s Future: Poetry & Prose in Response to Tomorrow, published by Washington Writers’ Publishing House. Free admission; register online.
Jan 2026
Researching for Creativity: Practical Tips for DC-Area Writers, from the 1930s and Now
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm on Wednesday, January 21, 2026 at The Writer’s Center
How can real-world research foster your creative work and thinking? In connection with The People’s Recorder podcast, this conversation with three DMV writers starts from the experiences of writers in a Depression-era cultural experiment, the Federal Writers’ Project. And it comes up to now with views from writers today about how research and interviews feed their own creative work.
As heard in the People’s Recorder podcast, many emerging writers in the 1930s found their voices in community with peers on a government project intended to put people to work documenting American life and history. Young writers–including some who later grew to prominence including Margaret Walker, Tillie Olsen, Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison and John Cheever–honed skills in archival research, oral history interviews, and street-level research. Those skills also helped in shaping their distinctive voices in poetry, novels and nonfiction.
Participants will learn how those skills prove useful for writers and other creatives today. The event includes a creative exercise and examples of local resources.
Panelists: Kim Roberts (poetry and nonfiction), David Nicholson (fiction and history), and David Taylor (fiction and nonfiction). Free admission, register in advance online.
Feb 2026
Writers Reading Series at Anne Arundel CC
2:00 pm - 3:30 pm on Tuesday, February 10, 2026 at Anne Arundel Community College
Kim reads poems, followed by Q&A. Hosted by Dr. Garrett Brown. Free admission.
Poets in the Conversation Room
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm on Saturday, February 21, 2026 at St. John’s College Conversation Room
Kim and Michael Gushue read from Q&A for the End of the World. Followed by Q&A with the authors. Hosted by Grace Cavalieri. Free admission.
Booking Kim for Your Event
Kim is available to hire for presentations, readings, and walking tours. She recently read nature poems and led a discussion at the Bernice Fonteneau Senior Wellness Center; and led a “Harlem Renaissance in DC” walking tour of U Street for students from George Washington University. If you’d like to book her for your school, book club, alumni association, non-profit organization or other group, please drop her a note (see contact page on this web site).
Q&A for the End of the World